Chapter 2 - Behind the Moon
Ethan ran toward the window.
Headlights flashed through the trees behind the mansion.
Not toward the main gate.
Toward the old service road.
“East gate.”
He called security.
“Block the east gate now.”
A voice answered immediately.
“It’s already locked.”
“Then how are they moving?”
There was a pause.
“Sir, someone opened the maintenance barrier.”
Nora closed her eyes.
Ethan noticed.
“You know about that barrier.”
“Everyone who has worked here long enough knows.”
“Richard knew?”
Nora nodded.
“Mrs. Grace showed him years ago.”
Ethan almost laughed.
Of course she had.
Richard had been family.
That was the problem.
Sophie stood beside the hidden compartment.
She was staring at the black flash drive.
“Is that Mommy’s?”
“I think so.”
“Can we watch it?”
Ethan wanted to say no.
Not yet.
Not until he knew what Grace had recorded.
But Sophie had spent months hearing adults decide what she was allowed to know.
Tonight she had been trapped in luggage because adults had lied to her.
Ethan crouched.
“We’re going to find out what Mom wanted us to know.”
Nora touched his shoulder.
“The bank key.”
He looked at the brass tag.
“First Connecticut Private Bank.”
Nora nodded.
“Grace went there three days before the accident.”
“How do you know?”
“I drove her.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You drove my wife to a bank three days before she died and never told me?”
“She begged me not to.”
“Why?”
“She said someone was watching her.”
Ethan looked toward Sophie.
The little girl had begun tracing the painted moon with one finger.
He lowered his voice.
“Who?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“But you suspected.”
Nora hesitated.
“Richard.”
Ethan looked away.
Outside, security vehicles were moving toward the service road.
The radio on his phone crackled.
“We found the vehicle.”
“Richard?”
“Abandoned.”
“Celeste?”
“No sign.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Search the grounds.”
“Yes, sir.”
Nora pointed toward the flash drive.
“We should see what’s on that before we go anywhere.”
Ethan agreed.
He took Sophie to his private study.
Nora brought hot chocolate and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.
Ethan inserted the drive into an offline laptop.
One folder appeared.
GRACE.
Inside were thirty-seven files.
Bank statements.
Photographs.
Audio clips.
Scanned contracts.
And one video.
The date made Ethan stop breathing.
The video had been recorded twelve hours before Grace’s fatal crash.
He clicked it.
Grace appeared on screen.
She was sitting exactly where Ethan was sitting now.
Her hair was tied back.
There were shadows beneath her eyes.
She looked exhausted.
But she did not look paranoid.
She looked terrified.
“Ethan,” the recording began.
Sophie reached for his hand.
“If you are watching this, I either found a way to tell you everything or something stopped me.”
Ethan leaned closer.
Grace looked directly into the camera.
“I need you to understand something first.”
“I did not hide this from you because I stopped trusting you.”
“I hid it because I realized someone around you had access to nearly everything you did.”
“Your email.”
“Your calendar.”
“Your financial authorization codes.”
“Even your travel schedule.”
Ethan’s stomach tightened.
Grace continued.
“Three months ago I found a transfer from the Whitlock Family Trust.”
“Four million dollars.”
“The authorization showed your digital signature.”
“You never signed it.”
Ethan whispered.
“No.”
Grace seemed to answer him from the screen.
“I know you didn’t.”
Sophie stared at her mother.
Grace’s expression softened for one brief second.
“If Sophie is watching this someday, sweetheart, I love you.”
Sophie’s lower lip trembled.
Ethan wrapped an arm around her.
Then Grace returned to the warning.
“The Whitlock Trust was created by my father.”
“When Sophie turns seven, she becomes the sole protected beneficiary.”
“Until then, I am trustee.”
“If I die, the documents name Ethan as temporary trustee.”
“But someone filed an amendment I never signed.”
Ethan leaned closer.
“What amendment?”
Grace answered.
“The amendment says that if Sophie establishes foreign residency before her seventh birthday, management authority may be transferred to an international guardian.”
Ethan felt cold.
Zurich.
The one-way ticket.
Sophie turned seven in six weeks.
Grace held up a page.
“I checked the signature.”
“It looks like mine.”
“It isn’t.”
“Richard prepared the original trust structure.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Richard had been one of the first lawyers Ethan ever trusted.
Grace continued.
“I confronted him indirectly.”
“He denied everything.”
“Then Celeste contacted me.”
Ethan’s eyes opened.
Nora gasped.
Grace said the name again.
“Celeste.”
Sophie looked toward him.
Grace had known Celeste before she died.
Ethan had met Celeste eighteen months after the funeral.
At least that was what Celeste had told him.
“She said she worked for Richard years ago.”
“She said she had evidence.”
“She asked me to meet her.”
Ethan’s heartbeat pounded in his ears.
The video flickered.
Grace looked behind her.
Then back toward the camera.
“If Celeste is telling the truth, Richard has been stealing from your company and my family trust for years.”
“If she is lying, then she is part of it.”
Grace paused.
“There is one way to know.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“Ask Celeste what happened at 2:17 a.m.”
Grace swallowed.
“She came to this house that night.”
“She entered through the service door.”
“I was waiting for her.”
“She gave me something.”
“She said it proved Richard was planning to move Sophie’s trust offshore.”
Grace lifted a small silver device.
A voice recorder.
“I hid the original somewhere Richard would never search.”
The video glitched.
Then resumed.
“If anything happens to me, do not let Richard control the investigation.”
Ethan stared.
Richard had helped choose the private investigator after Grace’s crash.
Richard had handled communications with the insurance company.
Richard had even recommended the mechanic who inspected Grace’s vehicle.
A terrible realization formed.
Grace took a breath.
“There is one more thing.”
The video cut out.
Ethan clicked the file again.
Same ending.
“There is one more thing.”
Black screen.
Sophie whispered.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here.”
“Did Uncle Richard hurt Mommy?”
Ethan could not answer.
Not yet.
His phone rang.
Security.
“We found Celeste.”
“Where?”
“Greenhouse.”
“And Richard?”
“No.”
Ethan stood.
“Keep her there.”
He looked at Nora.
“Stay with Sophie.”
Sophie grabbed him.
“No.”
Ethan looked down.
“I don’t want you near Celeste.”
“She knows what happened to Mommy.”
“Yes.”
“So do I.”
Ethan frowned.
Sophie looked toward the photograph.
“Last week, Celeste took me into Mommy’s room.”
Ethan froze.
“What?”
“She made me look for something.”
“What?”
“A little silver recorder.”
Ethan’s skin prickled.
“Did you find it?”
Sophie shook her head.
“Celeste got angry.”
“Then what?”
“She said Richard would know where Mommy hid it.”
Ethan turned toward Nora.
Nora’s eyes widened.
Sophie continued.
“But I heard her call him.”
“What did she say?”
Sophie swallowed.
“She said, ‘If Ethan finds the recorder, he’ll know Grace didn’t die in an accident.’”
The study went silent.
Then Nora suddenly looked toward the grandfather clock in the hallway.
Her face changed.
“Mrs. Grace used to say there was only one place in this house Richard never touched.”
Ethan followed her gaze.
“The clock?”
Nora shook her head.
“No.”
“The room underneath it.”
Ethan stared at her.
May you like
There was no room underneath the grandfather clock.
At least there wasn’t supposed to be.
