The final paragraph was worse.
If anything happens to me, they will come after the people who know the truth.
Your brother.
Your wife.
And the little girl.
I looked up.
“The little girl?”
Samuel nodded.
“That was me.”
I couldn’t speak.
“They knew about me.”
“Yes.”
“And my parents died because of this?”
“I believe so.”
I looked down at the documents.
Then something caught my attention.
A name.
Repeated over and over.
Sterling Holdings.
My blood went cold.
“Grandpa…”
Samuel nodded slowly.
“That is the company Ethan’s family built.”
I stared at him.
“You’re telling me Ethan is connected to the people who killed my parents?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you think he is.”
“I think Ethan may have been raised inside a family built on the same secrets.”
My hands began to shake.
“Then why did he leave me?”
Samuel’s expression became even more troubled.
“That is the question we need to answer.”
I remembered the night I told Ethan I was pregnant.
His face.
The way he had gone completely still.
The way his hands had trembled.
Then he had asked me one strange question.
“Does your grandfather know about us?”
At the time, I thought it was simply fear.
Now, it felt different.
“He knew something,” I whispered.
Samuel looked at me.
“What?”
“The night I told Ethan I was pregnant, he asked if you knew about us.”
Samuel’s face went pale.
“Did you tell him?”
“No.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“He said…”
I stopped.
“What?”
“He said, ‘If Samuel finds out who I am, everything changes.’”
Samuel closed his eyes.
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then his phone rang.
The sound made both of us jump.
Samuel looked at the screen.
His expression changed.
“Who is it?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
