Chapter 7 - The Bride Without a Wedding)
Victoria Hale did not return home.
She did not contact her lawyers.
She did not appear at any family property police knew about.
By morning she was officially wanted for questioning in connection with Lucy’s abduction.
Conrad Hale, however, remained visible.
He arrived at his corporate headquarters at nine o’clock surrounded by attorneys and private security.
When reporters asked about his daughter, Conrad said only one sentence.
“My family is being targeted by people who want money.”
Ethan watched the statement from his apartment.
Lucy sat beside him eating cereal.
She had refused to sleep alone.
Ethan had spent the night in a chair outside her room.
“Is he lying?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“You knew fast.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice lately.”
Lucy looked at him.
“Mom says lies get heavier every time you carry them.”
Ethan smiled sadly.
“That sounds like her.”
Reed arrived with news.
“We recovered security footage from the mill.”
“Victoria?”
“Her vehicle left heading north.”
“And Olivia?”
“We found traces in the second car. Hair matches an old sample from her apartment.”
Ethan stood.
“So she was there.”
“Yes.”
“Where did they take her?”
“We don’t know.”
Nora entered behind Reed.
“I might.”
She placed a map on the table.
“There were three safe properties Conrad used when Thomas was alive. Lake Briar was one. The paper mill was another.”
“And the third?”
Nora pointed toward Vermont.
“St. Agnes Retreat.”
Lucy frowned.
“What is it?”
“An old rehabilitation center.”
“Who owns it?”
“Officially? A church trust.”
Ethan looked at Reed.
“And unofficially?”
“Hale Strategic Services paid the property taxes for six years.”
They left within the hour.
Lucy stayed with Claire under police protection.
Before Ethan walked out, she grabbed his hand.
“Bring her home.”
He crouched.
“I will.”
“Promise?”
Ethan hesitated.
He had learned too much about promises.
Then he said, “I promise I won’t stop looking.”
Lucy accepted that.
St. Agnes Retreat stood on an isolated mountain road.
It had been closed to the public for eight years.
Police surrounded it before entering.
The first floor was empty.
The second held abandoned medical rooms.
In the basement, they found restraints bolted to a chair.
Ethan’s stomach turned.
Then an officer shouted.
A woman was lying in a locked room.
Ethan ran.
“Nora!”
Nora pushed past him.
The woman wasn’t Olivia.
She was in her forties.
Weak.
Terrified.
But alive.
Paramedics rushed in.
The woman gripped Ethan’s sleeve.
“Pierce?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes widened.
“They said you were dead.”
“Who?”
“Thomas.”
Ethan froze.
“My father?”
The woman shook her head violently.
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“The other Pierce.”
Ethan stared.
“What other Pierce?”
She passed out.
At the hospital, doctors stabilized her.
Her fingerprints identified her as Evelyn Shaw, a former Hale Foundation accountant who had vanished nine years earlier.
Everyone had assumed she had stolen money and fled the country.
Instead, someone had hidden her in a private facility.
When Evelyn finally woke, Reed questioned her.
Ethan sat nearby.
“Who is the other Pierce?” Reed asked.
Evelyn stared at Ethan.
“You really don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“Thomas had a partner.”
“Conrad?”
“No.”
“A Pierce.”
Ethan leaned closer.
“Who?”
Evelyn swallowed.
“Thomas’s brother.”
Ethan frowned.
“My father didn’t have a brother.”
Evelyn laughed weakly.
“That’s what they told everyone.”
“Name.”
“Samuel.”
Margaret had never mentioned Samuel Pierce.
Neither had Thomas.
Ethan had never seen a photograph.
Reed asked, “Is Samuel alive?”
Evelyn’s face tightened.
“I don’t know.”
“When did you last see him?”
“Nine years ago.”
“Where?”
“At Lake Briar.”
“What was he doing?”
“Looking for Olivia.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“Why?”
“Because she had something that belonged to him.”
“What?”
“The original incorporation records.”
“For Northstar Meridian?”
Evelyn nodded.
“What did they prove?”
“That Thomas Pierce didn’t create the network.”
“Then who did?”
Evelyn looked terrified.
“Samuel.”
The room went quiet.
Reed asked the next question carefully.
“Where is Olivia now?”
“I heard them talking yesterday.”
Ethan’s pulse jumped.
“Who?”
“Victoria and a man.”
“What man?”
“She called him Uncle.”
Ethan stared.
Evelyn continued.
“They said Olivia was being taken to Boston.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Then she remembered something.
“They said the wedding changed everything.”
Ethan leaned closer.
“What else?”
“Victoria wanted to kill Olivia.”
Lucy’s face flashed through his mind.
“And the man?”
Evelyn’s eyes filled with fear.
“He told her no.”
“Why?”
“Because Olivia was the only person who knew where Samuel’s son was buried.”
Ethan felt cold.
“What son?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Ethan stood.
His phone rang.
Claire.
He answered immediately.
“What happened?”
Claire’s voice was shaking.
“Ethan, you need to come home.”
“Is Lucy okay?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“She found something inside one of Olivia’s letters.”
“What?”
“A photograph.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Of who?”
Claire whispered:
“You.”
May you like
Then:
“And a man who looks exactly like you.”
