Chapter 8 - Ava Moretti
Caroline sat down.
“I met Ethan eleven months ago.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Did Ava?”
She didn't answer.
That was enough.
“Caroline.”
Her eyes filled.
“Ava met him before I did.”
“How?”
Six years earlier, Caroline worked at one of Ethan's nonprofit clinics.
She met him briefly.
One night became something more.
Then nothing.
Caroline discovered she was pregnant after Ethan reconciled with Rebecca.
She never told him.
Ava wasn't nine.
She was eight.
Caroline had altered records during a custody battle with her former husband.
Ethan eventually recognized Ava in a foundation file.
He noticed her eyes.
Her expressions.
Then quietly requested DNA testing.
Ava was his daughter.
My niece.
Rebecca discovered it.
Now everything changed.
Leo wasn't Ethan's only heir.
Ava was older.
Under the trust language, Ava could supersede Leo in certain holdings if paternity was legally established.
Rebecca wasn't merely hunting money.
She was trying to prevent Ethan from acknowledging another child.
“Why didn't you tell us?”
Caroline looked ashamed.
“Because Ethan asked me not to.”
He feared Rebecca.
He also feared me.
Not because he believed I would hurt Ava.
Because acknowledging Ava publicly would expose her to the Moretti name.
The world Ethan had spent his life avoiding.
I understood.
That hurt worse.
Then Ramirez received a call.
Malcolm Voss had been found.
Alive.
Abandoned beside a highway.
He was terrified.
Rebecca had turned on him.
We questioned him.
He admitted helping falsify Ethan's death paperwork.
Why?
Money initially.
Then blackmail.
Rebecca possessed records proving Voss had manipulated medical reports for wealthy clients.
But Voss insisted Rebecca wasn't the leader.
“Who is?”
He shook his head.
“I never met him.”
“Him?”
“Yes.”
Rebecca called him the Trustee.
All instructions arrived through encrypted messages.
The Trustee selected families.
Rebecca gathered information.
Voss produced medical leverage.
Others handled custody and finances.
“Where is Rebecca taking Ethan?”
Voss gave us one possibility.
An abandoned private school outside Fredericksburg.
The network used it years earlier.
Then he grabbed my sleeve.
“If Rebecca has Ethan, she's not trying to kill him.”
“What does she want?”
“His signature.”
“For what?”
Voss stared at me.
“Recognition of Ava.”
That made no sense.
Rebecca wanted Ava erased.
Unless—
“She needs Ethan to acknowledge Ava?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Voss whispered:
“Because the Trustee doesn't want Leo's inheritance.”
Pause.
“He wants Ava's.”
My phone vibrated.
A photograph arrived.
Ethan tied to a chair.
Rebecca beside him.
Ava standing behind her.
Then a message:
BRING LEO.
I stared at it.
May you like
A second message arrived.
OR ETHAN DIES BEFORE SUNRISE.
