CHAPTER 6 — THE WOMAN WHO CHOSE A SIDE
CHAPTER 6 — THE WOMAN WHO CHOSE A SIDE
Olivia shook her head violently.
“No.”
“Richard just said—”
“He recruited me years ago.”
Mrs. Bell whispered, “Dear God.”
Olivia’s voice cracked.
“My father’s company was collapsing. Richard offered to save it if I stayed close to the Calloway family.”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“You targeted Luke.”
“At first.”
“And after he disappeared?”
“Richard told me Luke had run away. Then he pushed me toward you.”
Ethan stepped back as if proximity to her had become unbearable.
“Our first meeting at the museum?”
“Arranged.”
“The apartment fire?”
“Richard paid the landlord.”
“The scholarship foundation where you worked?”
“His.”
Ethan laughed once.
It was a broken sound.
“So my marriage was a corporate strategy.”
“It became real.”
“When?”
She couldn’t answer.
He nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
Olivia grabbed his arm.
“I betrayed Richard three years ago when Luke contacted me. I helped him come home.”
“You helped him hide in my house.”
“To collect evidence.”
“You let my son build a relationship with his biological father behind my back.”
“I thought Noah deserved to know him.”
“And I didn’t deserve to know anything?”
Olivia dropped her hand.
Noah stood in the doorway, listening.
Ethan saw him and stopped.
He crouched beside the boy.
“Go with Mrs. Bell.”
Noah looked at Olivia.
“Is Mom bad?”
Olivia broke.
She dropped to the floor.
“No, baby. I made bad choices.”
Noah’s face crumpled.
“Did you lie to Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was scared.”
Noah stared at her for several seconds.
Then he walked past her and took Mrs. Bell’s hand.
The rejection crushed Olivia more effectively than any accusation.
When they were alone, Ethan opened the burned folder.
Most documents were damaged.
One page remained readable.
A transfer agreement for forty-nine percent of Calloway Global.
Luke’s signature appeared at the bottom.
“That’s fake,” Olivia said.
“I know.”
Richard planned to use the forged agreement to seize Luke’s shares after declaring him legally alive.
Ethan looked at the deadline.
The transfer would be approved at an emergency board meeting at nine that morning.
In less than six hours.
Richard didn’t merely want Luke back.
He wanted Luke publicly identified, mentally discredited, and stripped of his ownership in one move.
Ethan called Detective Cole.
“I know where Richard is taking my brother.”
“How?”
“Because he needs Luke close to Calloway Tower before the board meeting.”
Ethan stared at the warehouse behind Luke in the video.
On the wall was a faded red number.
Pier 17.
His father had once owned a shipping terminal there.
Ethan grabbed his coat.
Olivia moved toward him.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“You’ll need someone Richard thinks he can still control.”
May you like
Ethan looked at the woman he no longer trusted.
“That’s the first useful thing you’ve said tonight.”
