Chapter 14 - The Funeral Without a Body
The court authorized an examination of the ashes stored in Michael’s memorial.
Because the remains had been cremated, the forensic team warned that identification might be impossible.
But Daniel Reeve had placed several personal items inside the urn.
Among the fragments was part of a surgical plate.
Michael had never undergone the operation associated with it.
Ethan’s sealed medical records showed that he had.
The dead man at Michael’s funeral was almost certainly Ethan Hartwell.
Emily sat alone in the chapel after the investigators removed the urn.
For weeks, she had mourned Michael.
Now she faced a different grief.
Michael may have survived, but another man had died in his place.
Had Ethan agreed to the plan?
Had Dominic forced him into the vehicle?
Had Michael known the body would be misidentified?
Richard entered the chapel and sat beside her.
“I should feel relieved,” Emily said. “But I do not.”
“You are allowed to feel more than one thing.”
“He let his daughters believe he was dead.”
“He may not have had a choice after the plane left.”
“He planned part of it.”
“Yes.”
Emily looked toward the empty memorial shelf.
“Michael trusted a ten-year-old with a secret but not his wife.”
“He believed he was protecting you.”
“He was wrong.”
Richard did not defend him.
“I spent my life letting people decide silence was protection,” he said. “It never protected anyone. It only protected the secret.”
Emily looked at him.
“Did you know Ethan was alive?”
“No. I only knew Margaret had given birth to another child. I believed he died.”
“And Margaret?”
“She knew.”
Margaret requested to speak with them from federal custody.
She had been charged with conspiracy, financial fraud, forgery, and interference with estate proceedings. Julian Vale was arrested at a private airport after attempting to travel under a false name.
Daniel Reeve and Dominic remained missing.
Margaret sat behind a glass partition wearing a plain gray uniform.
Without her tailored blazer and carefully arranged surroundings, she looked smaller.
Not harmless.
Just human.
“Ethan was the body,” Emily said.
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“You knew during the funeral.”
“Yes.”
“Did Michael kill him?”
“No.”
“Did Dominic?”
Margaret looked toward the guard.
“Ethan had spent his entire life believing Dominic was his father. When Michael found him, he told Ethan the truth.”
“What truth?”
“Dominic did not rescue Ethan as a baby. He purchased him from the nurse who helped me hide the birth.”
Richard’s hands tightened.
“You sold your son?”
Margaret looked at him sharply.
“I was twenty-three. Alexander would have destroyed me if he learned the child was not his.”
“Was Ethan Dominic’s son?” Emily asked.
“No.”
“Then whose?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with something close to shame.
“Julian Vale’s father.”
The web extended further with every answer.
Julian had not protected Margaret only as her attorney. His family was connected to Ethan.
“Why was Ethan in Michael’s car?” Emily asked.
“Michael planned to use Ethan’s resemblance to stage his disappearance. Ethan agreed because Michael promised to help him escape Dominic.”
“But Ethan died.”
“Dominic discovered the plan.”
“What happened at Blackwater Pier?”
“I was not there.”
“Who was?”
“Michael, Ethan, Daniel Reeve, and Dominic.”
“Who left in the car?”
Margaret lowered her voice.
“Ethan was already unconscious. Dominic placed him in the vehicle. Daniel drove it to the river.”
“And Michael?”
“He was taken to the plane.”
“By Dominic?”
“No.”
Margaret looked at Richard.
“By Catherine.”
Richard went completely still.
“My mother was at Blackwater Pier?”
“She helped Michael escape.”
“Then why has neither of them contacted us?”
“Because the flight did not land where Michael planned.”
“Where did it land?”
“I do not know.”
Emily pushed the photograph from the Vermont facility against the glass.
“Catherine was alive two weeks after the funeral.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel removed her from the facility.”
“Yes.”
“Where did he take her?”
Margaret leaned toward the partition.
“Dominic has a ship.”
Richard frowned.
“What kind of ship?”
“A medical research vessel operating beyond United States jurisdiction. It changes names and registration every few months.”
“Is Catherine there?”
“She was.”
“And Michael?”
Margaret hesitated.
“He may be.”
Emily studied her face.
“You are still hiding something.”
Margaret glanced toward the security camera.
Then she whispered so softly that Emily barely heard her.
“Dominic is not the person giving the orders anymore.”
“Who is?”
Before Margaret could answer, the lights inside the interview room went out.
The emergency system activated seconds later.
When the lights returned, Margaret was slumped over the table.
The guard rushed inside.
She was alive but unconscious.
A small envelope had appeared beneath her chair.
No one could explain how it entered the secured room.
Inside was a photograph taken that morning.
It showed Lily, Sophie, and Ava playing in the gardens at Hartwell Manor.
May you like
A sentence was printed beneath it.
Homecoming begins with the youngest bird.
