Chapter 13 - Olivia's Final Gift)
The criminal case became national news.
Ethan hated that.
Reporters parked outside Seabrook.
Television crews photographed the gates.
Headlines described Beatrice as a society matriarch, trust heiress and suspected killer.
None of those descriptions mattered to Ethan.
To him, she was simply the woman who had hurt Noah and taken Olivia away.
Prosecutors charged Beatrice with financial crimes, fraud, child endangerment and offenses connected to Olivia's medical records.
Charles's death required further expert review.
Malcolm Reed entered a cooperation agreement.
Aaron Voss did the same.
Neither escaped responsibility.
Both faced prison.
But their testimony created the structure prosecutors needed.
One month later, Rebecca called Ethan into her office.
"I found something Charles wanted you to have."
Ethan stared at the envelope on her desk.
"Another letter?"
"Not from Charles."
She pushed it toward him.
His name was written across the front.
Ethan recognized the handwriting.
Olivia.
His hands shook before he touched it.
"When did she give you this?"
"Three days before her procedure."
"Why didn't you give it to me?"
"She made me promise to wait until the trust matter was resolved."
"Rebecca, she's been dead almost a year."
"I know."
Ethan looked angry.
Rebecca did not defend herself.
"Read it."
He opened the envelope.
Ethan,
If Rebecca is giving you this, then something probably went wrong.
I hate writing that sentence.
Maybe nothing will happen and I'll feel ridiculous about this someday.
I hope so.
But Beatrice knows I found the accounts.
She also knows Charles believes me.
I don't know what she is capable of.
What I do know is that she has spent her entire life convincing everyone around her that control is love.
It isn't.
Ethan stopped reading.
He looked toward the window until his vision cleared.
Then he continued.
If anything happens to me, do not let her make Noah into a question.
He is your son.
I had the independent test done because I found the false report she commissioned.
The real test is with Rebecca.
But I need you to understand something more important than DNA.
You became Noah's father the first night you slept on the nursery floor because you were afraid you would not hear him cry.
You became his father every morning after that.
No piece of paper gives you that.
No piece of paper can take it away.
Ethan pressed his fingers to his mouth.
Rebecca looked away to give him privacy.
The letter continued.
Charles is changing the trust because he wants Noah protected.
I argued with him.
I told him the house was too much.
He laughed and said the house was never the point.
He said the point was making sure Beatrice could never use money to control Noah.
If Noah grows up there, fill it with noise.
Let children run on the marble.
Let someone spill juice in the library.
Open the windows.
Invite people who make Beatrice uncomfortable.
Make it a home.
And Ethan, if I am not there, please do one thing for me.
Tell Noah I loved him before I ever saw his face.
Olivia.
Ethan cried then.
Not quietly.
Not politely.
He folded forward over the letter and let nearly a year of grief come out.
Rebecca waited.
When he finally looked up, she had tears in her own eyes.
"There's one more thing," she said.
Ethan laughed weakly.
"Of course there is."
Rebecca smiled.
"Charles created a charitable foundation attached to Noah's trust."
"For what?"
"Children who lose a parent before age eighteen."
Ethan stared at her.
"The initial funding is twenty million dollars."
"Twenty?"
"Your father was determined."
Ethan looked at Olivia's letter.
"What is it called?"
Rebecca turned the final document toward him.
The Olivia Langley Children's Foundation.
Ethan closed his eyes.
For months, every discovery connected to Olivia had brought pain.
This one did not.
This one brought something else.
A future.
That evening Ethan returned to Seabrook.
Noah ran toward him across the entrance hall.
"Dada!"
Ethan crouched and caught him.
Nora stood nearby.
"Good day?"
Ethan held Noah close.
"Better than most."
He looked toward the staircase.
For a second he remembered the fall.
Then Noah grabbed Ethan's nose and laughed.
The memory loosened its grip.
Ethan kissed his son's forehead.
"We're changing this house."
Nora smiled.
"How?"
Ethan looked around at the immaculate marble, the untouched antiques and the rooms Beatrice had treated like museum displays.
"First, we're getting rid of half this furniture."
Nora laughed.
"And then?"
May you like
Ethan looked at Noah.
"Then we're going to make some noise."
