Chapter 15 - CATHERINE
Catherine Hale arrived voluntarily.
No hiding.
No dramatic arrest.
She walked into Naomi’s office wearing a navy coat and carrying a cane.
She looked at me for a long time.
Then said.
“You have your grandmother’s eyes.”
I was tired of hearing it.
“You’re Jason’s mother.”
“Yes.”
“You told him you were dead?”
“No.”
“Then why did he tell me that?”
“Because Stephen told him I was dead.”
She sat.
I remained standing.
“Did you kill Marcus Lee’s father?”
Marcus stood beside the window.
Catherine looked at him.
Her face changed.
“No.”
“Diane says you did.”
“Diane has been wrong about many things.”
“Did Gregory order you to?”
“No.”
“Then explain why my mother believes that.”
Catherine opened her bag.
Naomi moved slightly.
Catherine removed an envelope.
Inside was a police report.
A confession.
Signed by a man named Walter Hale.
Her brother.
Walter had been a mechanic.
He had damaged the brake line on Marcus’s father’s car.
He claimed Gregory Voss paid him.
Marcus sat down.
The room went silent.
“Why was this never prosecuted?”
Catherine’s eyes filled.
“Walter disappeared before he could testify.”
“Dead?”
“Probably.”
“Who had the confession?”
“Evelyn.”
“Then Dad’s missing pages may contain it.”
“Yes.”
Catherine admitted she had sent the anonymous messages.
She had watched Stephen reappear.
Watched Jason approach me.
Watched Diane restart the old network.
“Why didn’t you warn me earlier?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
I frowned.
Then remembered a strange email.
Anonymous.
STAY AWAY FROM STEPHEN COLE’S SON.
I had deleted it as spam.
Catherine laughed bitterly when I told her.
“Your grandmother would have opened it.”
“Apparently I’m not her.”
“No.”
She studied me.
“You’re better.”
I ignored that.
“Where is my father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who does?”
“Gregory.”
We contacted the task force.
Gregory denied knowing.
Then his car was found abandoned.
He had disappeared too.
Two powerful men.
Robert and Gregory.
Both running.
Possibly toward the same place.
Catherine knew where.
“Evelyn had a cabin.”
I stared at her.
“My grandmother hated camping.”
“It wasn’t for vacations.”
A rural property registered under an old trust.
No one in my family had mentioned it.
Catherine believed Grandma stored backup records there.
Dad might have taken the death pages there.
Gregory would know.
At dusk, investigators reached the cabin.
Empty.
But recently occupied.
Coffee still warm.
A fireplace burning low.
On the table lay one torn ledger page.
Marcus read it.
It recorded payment from Gregory Voss to Walter Hale.
Date.
Amount.
Purpose hidden behind a code.
Enough to support Catherine’s story.
Then we found blood near the back door.
Dad’s blood type later matched.
No body.
No Gregory.
No Dad.
Tracks led toward the woods.
A helicopter searched through darkness.
At 2:10 a.m., they found Gregory.
He was alive.
Shot in the shoulder.
He claimed Dad shot him.
“Where is Robert?”
Gregory whispered.
“He took the pages.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Then he grabbed my wrist.
“He knows who killed Evelyn.”
My entire body stiffened.
“Who?”
Gregory shook his head.
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
“Why?”
“Because it would destroy you.”
I pulled free.
“Everyone keeps deciding what truth I can survive.”
Gregory looked exhausted.
“This one isn’t about money.”
“What is it about?”
He closed his eyes.
“Why your grandmother changed the will.”
I leaned closer.
“You said she changed it because she wanted to protect me.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“She changed it because she discovered who you were going to marry.”
My blood went cold.
“Jason was fifteen when Grandma died.”
“Yes.”
“That makes no sense.”
Gregory whispered.
“Evelyn knew Stephen had a son.”
Then the terrible possibility surfaced.
Grandma had not predicted Jason specifically.
She had feared Stephen would eventually use his family against ours.
Gregory continued.
“She wrote his name down.”
“Jason?”
“No.”
“The name he was born with.”
I stared at him.
Jason Cole was not Jason Cole.
His identity had been changed after his father disappeared.
And when investigators pulled the sealed juvenile records the next morning, we learned why.
Jason’s original last name was Voss.
Stephen Cole was not his biological father.
Gregory was.
May you like
Sydney and Jason were not merely lovers.
They were half-siblings.
