Chapter 39
[Chapter 39: The Division of Assets]
“Ethan, listen to me,” Lauren said, her voice dropping the sweet, vulnerable tone she had used for years. She stood up from the luggage cart, setting Noah down gently. “The marriage was real. I love you. But your family was a parasite. Patricia was going to drain us dry. Richard offered me a way out—a way to secure Noah’s entire future.”
“By burning our house down?” Ethan asked, his voice cracking, the pain radiating through his entire body. “By putting our son in danger at urgent care?”
“Noah was never in danger!” Lauren snapped, her eyes flashing with a cold, protective fire. “I controlled the fever. I knew exactly when to call the nurse line. It was a script, Ethan! We needed a dramatic exit so your mother would look like the villain. If she looked crazy, no one would believe her when she accused us of financial fraud!”
Richard pulled the pistol from his waistband, his face expressionless. “Give us the ledger, Ethan. We transfer the Swiss funds to Lauren’s account, and we leave. You can keep the truck, the insurance payout, and the rental house. You can even keep the boy if you want. But the money leaves with us.”
Ethan looked at his son, sleeping peacefully on the luggage cart, completely oblivious to the fact that his mother and grandfather were monsters.
Ethan slowly opened the ledger. “You forgot one thing, Dad.”
What’s that?
May you like
“I didn’t bring the original ledger,” Ethan said, a cold smile breaking across his face as he ripped a page out of the book, revealing it to be a high-quality color photocopy. “The original is with Rebecca Vance. And the FBI state line jurisdiction kicked in the moment you crossed into Illinois with stolen corporate identities three months ago.”
Suddenly, the floodlights of the hangar snapped on, blinding everyone. The roar of police sirens tore through the fog outside.
