Chapter 13 - The Third Carter
Thomas Carter had never spoken of another child.
Neither had Ethan’s mother.
Madison thought Celeste was lying.
Ethan wasn’t so sure anymore.
They returned to Thomas’s private records.
A sealed probate annex contained monthly payments made for thirty-seven years to a woman named Rebecca Cole.
The payments ended six months after Thomas died.
Rebecca Cole had a son.
Edward Cole.
Born one year before Ethan.
Middle initial C.
Edward C. Cole.
E.C.
Ross located him.
Or tried to.
Edward had no tax records after 2014.
No driver’s license renewal.
No known residence.
A death certificate existed.
Cause: drowning.
Body: not recovered.
2014.
The same year Vale succession listed E.C.
Madison sat beside Ethan in the federal command center.
“If Dad had another son…”
“Then he hid him from us.”
“Why?”
Ethan looked at the Haven files.
“Maybe he was protecting him.”
“Or protecting us from him.”
Meanwhile, Emily gradually softened toward Sophie.
Sophie asked too many questions to be intimidated by teenage coldness.
“Do you like horses?”
“No.”
“Chocolate?”
“Yes.”
“Dogs?”
“Yes.”
“Then we can be sisters.”
Emily almost smiled.
Ethan watched from across the room.
Laura should have been there.
That thought stayed with him like a wound.
Richard agreed to cooperate in exchange for consideration.
Ethan did not like it.
Federal investigators did.
Richard revealed that Laura had approached him five years earlier after discovering Emily’s identity.
At the time Richard worked for Grayhaven.
Laura threatened exposure.
Richard tried to recruit her instead.
“She pretended to cooperate,” he said.
Ethan’s fists tightened.
“You slept with my wife?”
Richard actually looked offended.
“No.”
“Good answer.”
“She despised me.”
“That makes two of us.”
Richard explained that Laura spent nearly two years gathering evidence.
Thomas secretly helped her.
Then Thomas became ill.
The Vale succession problem became urgent.
Thomas wanted to transfer his title outside the hereditary chain.
Grayhaven refused.
Laura discovered Edward.
Thomas’s hidden first son.
According to Richard, Edward was raised partially through Haven House.
“He believed your father abandoned him.”
“Did he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is Edward now?”
Richard looked uneasy.
“I thought he was dead.”
“But?”
“The man who ordered Laura’s surveillance used Edward’s authentication phrase.”
Ethan leaned closer.
“Did Edward kill Laura?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because Grayhaven was compartmentalized. Nobody knew everything.”
“Who ordered the accident?”
Richard closed his eyes.
“I received instructions to make sure Laura stopped traveling with evidence.”
“That is not an answer.”
“I passed her schedule to an intermediary.”
Ethan stood.
“You helped kill her.”
“I didn’t know they would kill her.”
“You knew enough.”
Richard didn’t defend himself.
That was almost worse.
Ethan stepped toward him.
Ross intervened.
“Ethan.”
Ethan looked at Richard.
“I hope cooperation buys you exactly enough freedom to spend every day remembering what you did.”
Richard lowered his eyes.
That night Ethan received a package.
No sender.
Inside was a USB drive.
One video.
Laura.
Alive.
Recorded two days before her death.
She sat in the mansion study.
“Ethan, if you see this, then someone released it because the old protections failed.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Laura continued.
“I need you to understand something about Thomas.”
She looked exhausted.
“He did terrible things before he tried to undo them.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Your father was Adrian Vale.”
Already known.
But hearing Laura say it hurt differently.
“He used the position to redirect children out of Haven House, erase debts, and shut down transfers. But before that, he participated.”
Laura looked toward someone off-camera.
“I don’t know whether redemption erases complicity. I don’t think it does.”
She faced the camera again.
“There is one person Thomas feared more than Grayhaven.”
Ethan leaned toward the screen.
“His first son.”
Edward.
Laura’s next words changed everything.
“Edward knows Sophie exists.”
A noise came from the hallway in the recording.
Laura turned.
The video skipped.
Then resumed.
Laura’s face was pale.
“If Edward reaches Sophie, do not believe him when he says he wants the trust.”
She leaned toward the camera.
“He wants his daughter back.”
The video ended.
Ethan stared.
His daughter?
Emily entered behind him.
She had heard.
Her face was white.
“No.”
Ethan turned.
Emily backed away.
“No.”
“What?”
May you like
Emily’s eyes filled with terror.
“They told me my father was dead.”
