Chapter 9 - Natalie’s Other Name)
Evelyn Hart agreed to speak with Ethan only after her attorney arrived.
She looked exactly like the woman from the hospital.
Older than Vanessa.
Harder.
But frightened.
Her gray coat was gone.
A police blanket covered her shoulders.
Ethan sat across from her inside a secure interview room.
"You helped destroy my wife."
Evelyn did not argue.
"Yes."
"You forged my signature."
"Yes."
"You helped have Natalie committed."
"Yes."
"You altered her medication authorization."
Evelyn’s eyes filled with shame.
"Yes."
Ethan wanted to hate her cleanly.
Completely.
But guilt complicated hatred.
"What happened the night she died?"
Evelyn looked at Ruiz.
"My immunity arrangement."
Ruiz frowned.
"You don’t have one."
"Then I’m not talking."
Ethan stood.
"You spent four years hiding while my son grew up without his mother."
Evelyn looked at him.
"I spent four years trying to stay alive."
"Natalie didn’t get that opportunity."
"No."
"Why?"
Evelyn’s voice cracked.
"Because I was a coward."
Ethan stopped.
For the first time she sounded like a person rather than a name inside Natalie’s files.
Evelyn continued.
"Damian Cross built systems around people’s weaknesses. Debt. affairs. addiction. secrets. family. He rarely threatened someone directly. He made them imagine what would happen if they disobeyed."
"What did he have on you?"
"Vanessa."
Ethan sat again.
Evelyn wiped her eyes.
"After Natalie discovered the transfers, Damian ordered me to discredit her. We manipulated records. Used Rebecca Lane’s credentials. Told Ethan she had voluntarily admitted herself."
"Rebecca cooperated?"
"No."
Ethan looked up.
"Then how?"
"We forged her recommendation."
"Where was Rebecca?"
"Trying to reach you."
Ethan’s chest tightened.
"What?"
"She called your office twelve times."
"I never received those calls."
"Damian had someone inside your company."
"Who?"
"I don’t know."
"Convenient."
"I truly don’t."
Evelyn leaned forward.
"Rebecca discovered Natalie had been drugged. She tried to remove her from Ravenport."
"The night Natalie died."
"Yes."
"Tell me everything."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"Rebecca entered through the north corridor at 11:40 PM. I let her in."
"Why?"
"Because I had finally understood Damian would not release Natalie."
"What happened?"
"We reached Natalie’s room."
Evelyn began crying.
"She could barely walk."
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
"She recognized Rebecca. She asked about Noah. Kept asking whether Noah was safe."
He looked away.
"Then Damian arrived."
"Alone?"
"No."
"Who was with him?"
"A physician named Arthur Voss."
Ruiz wrote it down.
"Where is he now?"
Evelyn stared at him.
"Dead."
"How?"
"Boating accident. Two years ago."
Ruiz’s expression hardened.
"Continue."
Evelyn did.
"Damian told Rebecca to leave. She refused. Natalie started screaming. Rebecca tried to call police."
"What happened?"
"Voss restrained Natalie. Damian took Rebecca’s phone."
Ethan’s hands curled into fists.
"And you?"
"I stood there."
"You stood there."
"Yes."
"What killed Natalie?"
Evelyn swallowed.
"An injection."
Ethan could not speak.
"Voss administered it."
"On Damian’s order?"
"Yes."
"Did Natalie know?"
"She looked at Damian and said one thing."
"What?"
Evelyn’s voice became almost inaudible.
"Tell Ethan I didn’t leave him."
Ethan stood abruptly and turned away.
For years, he had imagined Natalie’s final moments.
None had been this.
None had involved her trying to send him a message while strangers decided she would never return home.
He covered his mouth.
Ruiz waited.
Eventually Ethan turned back.
"What happened to Rebecca?"
"She attacked Voss."
Ethan stared.
"Rebecca?"
"She smashed a medical tray into his face and ran."
"How did she escape?"
"I triggered a fire alarm."
"You helped her."
"It was the only useful thing I did that night."
"Then why is she officially missing?"
"Damian needed her gone. We created a story. Abandoned car. Hiking trail. She changed identities."
"Where is she?"
Evelyn shook her head.
"I promised never to say."
"Natalie is dead."
"I know."
"Rebecca can prove Damian murdered her."
"If Rebecca is still alive."
"You said she was."
"I received a postcard thirteen months ago."
"From where?"
"No return address."
"What did it say?"
Evelyn smiled sadly.
"Still breathing."
Ethan sat down again.
"Vanessa said Natalie had a trust."
Evelyn’s expression changed.
"She told you."
"What is it?"
"Not exactly a trust."
"Then what?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Natalie Cole wasn’t born Natalie Cole."
"Obviously."
"I mean Natalie wasn’t her original surname."
Ethan frowned.
"Her name was Natalie Mercer before we married."
"No."
Evelyn looked directly at him.
"Mercer was her adoptive name."
The room became silent.
Ethan had known Natalie’s parents died when she was young.
She had been raised by an aunt.
At least that was what she told him.
"What was her birth name?"
Evelyn answered.
"Natalie Cross."
Ethan stared.
The surname seemed impossible.
Then horrible.
"No."
Evelyn nodded.
"Yes."
"Related to Damian?"
"His younger sister."
Ethan stood.
"That’s impossible."
"Damian was sixteen when Natalie was born. Their father had a second family. Natalie’s existence was hidden."
"She never told me."
"She didn’t know until adulthood."
"When did she find out?"
"Two years before her death."
Ethan remembered Natalie becoming intensely interested in genealogy.
He had thought it was a hobby.
"Why hide it from me?"
"Because she learned the Cross family money was tied to things she considered criminal."
"Project Harbor."
"Partly."
"And the trust?"
Evelyn nodded.
"When their father died, a portion of the estate was placed into a restricted inheritance for any legally recognized children."
"Damian received his portion."
"Yes."
"Natalie?"
"Her identity was concealed. She never claimed it."
"Then why does it matter now?"
"Because if Natalie died leaving a biological child"
Ethan’s body went rigid.
"Noah."
"Yes."
"Noah inherits."
"Potentially hundreds of millions."
Ethan finally understood Vanessa’s marriage.
"If I married Vanessa"
"And something happened to you later, Vanessa could gain guardianship influence over Noah and access through family structures."
Ethan stared at Evelyn.
"You were using my son as a path to Natalie’s inheritance."
"I wasn’t."
"Your daughter was."
"Damian was."
"Vanessa took money."
"I know."
"She endangered Noah."
"I know."
"Stop making excuses."
"I’m not."
Evelyn lowered her head.
"I failed Natalie. Then I failed Vanessa. I won’t ask you to forgive either."
Ethan forced himself to focus.
"The recording."
Evelyn looked up.
"You have proof from that night."
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Safe."
"Where?"
She shook her head.
"I need protection."
"Ruiz can arrange it."
"I need Vanessa protected too."
Ethan’s face hardened.
"Vanessa will answer for what she did to Noah."
Evelyn nodded.
"I’m not asking you to erase that."
"Then what?"
"I’m asking you not to let Damian erase her."
Ethan looked toward Ruiz.
The detective said nothing.
Evelyn gave them an address.
An old train station locker.
Inside, she claimed, was a storage key.
The storage facility contained the recording.
Police moved immediately.
Two hours later they opened the unit.
It was empty.
No recording.
No boxes.
No documents.
Only one chair in the center.
On the chair was a photograph.
Evelyn standing outside the hospital where she had been held less than three hours earlier.
Taken through a long lens.
On the back:
SHE TALKED.
Ruiz called the hospital.
Evelyn was still safe.
Then the detective received another call.
His expression changed.
"What?"
Ethan asked.
Ruiz lowered the phone.
"Damian Cross’s private jet took off forty minutes ago."
"Where is he going?"
"No flight plan listed publicly."
"Can they stop him?"
"Not if he’s already outside our jurisdiction."
Ethan looked at the empty storage unit.
Damian had anticipated them again.
But this time he had left something behind accidentally.
A tiny strip of paper rested beneath the chair leg.
Ethan picked it up with gloves.
A baggage tag.
Airport code.
BTV.
May you like
Burlington, Vermont.
The same state where Rebecca Lane had supposedly disappeared.
