Chapter 16 - The Letter to Ethan

Ethan held the package but could not open it.

For a full minute, he just stared at Claire’s handwriting.

Then he handed it to me.

“You do it.”

I tore the paper carefully.

Inside were photocopied bank records, a small key, and a letter dated October 12, 2003—the year before Ethan’s mother died.

Claire had been alive fourteen years after her disappearance.

Ethan read aloud.

“Rebecca, if you ever choose to tell your son who I am, tell him this first: none of this began with him, and none of it belongs on his shoulders.”

His voice broke.

I took his hand.

The letter continued.

Claire had spent years documenting Richard’s theft and Caleb’s violence. She also admitted something no one expected.

The body found below the ridge in 1989 had not been Thomas.

It had been Caleb’s older brother, Marcus Voss.

Marcus had discovered Thomas barely alive after Caleb attacked him. When Marcus threatened to go to police, Caleb killed him too and switched identification to make everyone believe Thomas was dead.

“But Thomas was in the truck,” I said.

Dad nodded slowly. “Caleb must have hidden the real body in the pond.”

Claire’s letter said she had witnessed Marcus’s murder.

That was why she ran.

She ended with one final instruction:

The key opens locker 214 at Union Station in Chicago. If Caleb is still alive, do not go alone.

Sheriff Molina immediately said, “Nobody is going anywhere tonight.”

Richard looked at her. “That locker could contain the original ledgers.”

“Which is why law enforcement will handle it.”

For the first time, he didn’t argue.

Then Ethan turned the letter over.

There was one more sentence written on the back in different ink.

A later addition.

Rebecca knows where I am.

Ethan went still.

“My mother knew Claire survived.”

Eleanor whispered, “Rebecca never told me.”

Ethan looked toward the dark window.

“My mother didn’t die from cancer.”

I frowned. “You told me she did.”

“That’s what my father told me.”

Richard’s face collapsed.

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And Ethan understood before Richard said a word.

“How did my mother really die?”