Chapter 8 - What Is Inside the Locket?
Ethan did not move.
Julian did.
He stepped between them.
“Mara.”
She held up Elena’s note.
“Read it.”
Julian did.
His face hardened.
Ethan looked tired.
Not shocked.
That frightened Mara.
“You knew she wrote that.”
“No.”
“Did you help us after the scandal?”
“Yes.”
“Who sent you?”
Ethan paused.
Too long.
Mara’s chest tightened.
“Graham?”
“Yes.”
Julian’s head snapped toward him.
Ethan continued before either spoke.
“He hired me to watch you.”
Mara laughed.
“Of course.”
“I was private security then.”
“You took money.”
“Yes.”
“You watched a twenty-three-year-old whose career had just been destroyed.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“I stopped reporting.”
“When?”
“After I met Elena.”
Mara froze.
“You knew my mother.”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
Ethan looked down.
“Better than Graham knew.”
Julian said, “Why did you join my security team?”
“To get inside Vale.”
“On whose orders?”
“No one’s.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“That is difficult to believe tonight.”
Ethan accepted it.
Mara stepped closer.
“Did my mother trust you?”
“Eventually.”
“Did you know about the locket?”
“Yes.”
“Box 714-03?”
“No.”
“Her investigation?”
“Parts.”
“Her death?”
His jaw tightened.
“I got there after.”
Mara’s pulse kicked.
“After what?”
“The crash.”
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You came to help me first.”
“Yes.”
Elena’s warning cut deeper.
Do not trust the person who comes to help Mara first.
Mara whispered, “Why would she write that?”
Ethan’s face changed.
“Because the last time we spoke, she thought I had betrayed her.”
“Had you?”
He did not answer.
Julian said, “Ethan.”
“I gave Graham a location.”
Mara stopped breathing.
“What location?”
“Where Elena was meeting Richard’s investigator.”
“Why?”
“I thought Graham wanted documents.”
“And what happened?”
“The investigator disappeared.”
Mara’s hands curled.
“You kept working for him.”
“For three more weeks.”
“Why?”
“To get proof.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
He pulled out his phone.
Encrypted archive.
Old recordings.
Graham ordering surveillance.
Payments to Celeste.
Contacts with Dr. Voss.
Julian stared.
“You have had this?”
“Not enough for charges.”
“Enough to tell me.”
“I didn’t trust the Vale family.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“I am the Vale family.”
“Exactly.”
Silence.
Mara looked at Ethan.
“What did my mother think you did?”
His eyes met hers.
“She thought I gave Graham the route she drove the night she died.”
Mara’s breath stopped.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Ethan looked at the old Ashford ledger.
“Celeste’s father.”
Celeste had said almost nothing about him.
Mara’s stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas Ashford wasn’t the last Ashford working with Graham.”
Julian frowned.
“Who?”
Ethan answered:
“Celeste’s father, Victor Ashford.”
The archive alarm sounded.
Box 714-03 access log refreshed.
Someone else had just authenticated remotely.
With the second locket credential.
Mara stared at the screen.
“There are two lockets?”
Ethan nodded slowly.
“Margaret had a matching pair.”
Julian looked at him.
“Who has the other one?”
Ethan’s face drained.
May you like
“Graham.”
CUT.
