The Mother He Kept Away

Chapter 3 - What Ethan Never Asked

Ethan confronted Claire the next morning.

He placed the bank statement on the table.

"You knew."

Claire nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me before you disappeared?"

"I was trying to."

"Then why run?"

"I didn't run."

She looked exhausted.

"I found the transfers two weeks before everything happened."

Margaret had been quietly moving money out of the family company for years.

Not for herself.

For Ethan's younger brother, Lucas.

Lucas had a gambling problem.

Then debts.

Then dangerous people demanding repayment.

Margaret covered everything.

Again and again.

When Claire discovered the missing money, she confronted Margaret privately.

Margaret begged her to stay silent.

Claire refused.

"I told her you deserved to know."

Ethan remembered Lucas's death.

Three years earlier.

The same night Claire disappeared.

His brother had crashed his car on a rural highway.

Police said he had been drinking.

Margaret told Ethan that Claire had gone to meet Lucas that night.

Then she showed Ethan a message supposedly sent from Claire's phone:

If you tell Ethan anything, I'll destroy you.

Hours later Lucas was dead.

Claire was gone.

The money was missing.

To Ethan, the story had been obvious.

Claire had stolen the money.

Lucas found out.

They fought.

Lucas died.

Claire fled.

He had hated her ever since.

Claire looked at him.

"Lucas called me."

Ethan's breathing changed.

"He wanted to confess everything."

"Everything?"

"The gambling. The money. Your mother."

Claire swallowed.

"He said he couldn't live with what she was doing to protect him."

"What happened?"

"I drove to meet him."

Ethan stared at her.

"When I arrived, Margaret was already there."

Claire's voice began shaking.

"They were arguing."

Lucas wanted to tell Ethan.

Margaret refused.

He got into his car.

Margaret tried to stop him.

He drove away angry.

Minutes later, he crashed.

Claire arrived first.

Lucas was still alive.

He gave her his phone.

"He told me there were recordings on it."

"What recordings?"

"Conversations with Margaret."

Ethan leaned forward.

"Where is the phone?"

Claire's eyes filled.

"I never got to keep it."

"What happened?"

"Your mother arrived."

Margaret took the phone.

Then two men Claire had never seen before forced her into another vehicle.

Ethan stood abruptly.

"No."

"I was terrified."

"No. My mother wouldn't—"

"She thought I would destroy what was left of the family."

Claire began crying.

"She told me if I disappeared, she'd make sure Noah was safe. If I came back, she'd make sure I never saw him again."

Ethan stared at her.

"Why didn't you go to the police?"

"I did."

"What?"

"Two days later."

"And?"

"They already had a theft report with my name on it."

Claire laughed bitterly.

"Your family attorney told them I had stolen company funds and threatened Lucas."

Ethan slowly sat back down.

Everything he had believed had come from the same small group of people.

His mother.

The family attorney.

The investigators they recommended.

He had never once asked Claire.

Because he had been too hurt to want her answer.