Chapter 5 - Ellie's Real Name
“No.”
Ellie said it immediately.
Too quickly.
Too loudly.
“No.”
Nicholas didn't argue.
She backed away.
“My father was Thomas Wells.”
“Ellie—”
“He repaired restaurant equipment. He hated suits. He made pancakes every Sunday. He couldn't even keep track of our electric bill.”
Nicholas remained still.
“That doesn't mean—”
“He wasn't some missing lawyer.”
Her voice cracked.
Ethan closed the office door.
Ellie glared at him.
“Don't lock me in.”
“I'm giving you privacy.”
“I don't want privacy.”
She looked back at Nicholas.
“I want you to tell me you're wrong.”
Nicholas couldn't.
That was answer enough.
Ellie left the office and walked into the empty restaurant.
Table twelve sat beneath soft morning light.
Nicholas followed slowly.
“My father knew Daniel Rusk,” he said.
Ellie turned.
“He knew your father?”
“Yes.”
“Did you meet him?”
“Once or twice. I was young.”
“So how can you know?”
Nicholas removed his phone.
He showed her the photograph.
Daniel at Anthony's charity dinner.
Younger.
No beard.
Different hair.
But the eyes.
Ellie recognized them.
Her father's eyes.
Her own eyes.
She sat down.
The room seemed suddenly tilted.
“My mother never told me.”
“Your mother?”
“Died three years ago.”
Nicholas's expression softened.
Ellie stared at the photograph.
“If Daniel is alive...”
She couldn't finish.
Nicholas understood.
Then Thomas Wells had not died when Ellie was twelve.
At least not in the way she'd been told.
Her entire childhood rearranged itself.
Closed casket.
Her mother's refusal to discuss details.
Moving apartments weeks afterward.
Changing schools.
Her mother's constant fear of unknown callers.
Ellie had assumed grief made people strange.
Maybe it had been fear.
“Why would he leave us?” she whispered.
Nicholas sat opposite her.
“I don't know.”
“You're supposed to know everything.”
“No.”
“Everybody acts like you do.”
“They're mistaken.”
Ellie laughed bitterly.
“Great. We finally agree.”
Nicholas allowed the insult.
Ethan entered.
“We found Ellie's birth certificate.”
Ellie looked up.
“Why are you searching my birth certificate?”
“Because somebody wanted us to ask about your father.”
He placed a copy down.
Father:
Daniel Thomas Rusk.
Not Thomas Wells.
Ellie closed her eyes.
The truth hurt differently when printed.
“What happened twelve years ago?” she asked.
Nicholas was silent.
Then he decided.
“My father discovered that people inside several companies were secretly buying influence through legitimate investments.”
“What does that mean?”
“They weren't stealing only money. They were creating dependency. Politicians. Contractors. Businesses. Property developers.”
Ellie frowned.
“My father was investigating it?”
“Yes.”
“So was Anthony.”
Nicholas nodded.
“Daniel disappeared. Anthony continued.”
“And Anthony died.”
“Yes.”
Ellie looked at him.
“You think the same people were involved.”
“I do now.”
A phone vibrated.
Ellie's.
Unknown number.
Nicholas and Ethan exchanged a look.
Ellie answered on speaker.
“Hello?”
A man's voice.
Older.
Calm.
“Ellie.”
She stopped breathing.
Nobody moved.
“Who is this?”
Silence.
Then:
“You've grown up.”
Ellie stood so fast the chair scraped backward.
Her eyes filled.
“Dad?”
Nicholas stared at the phone.
The man's voice broke slightly.
“I am sorry.”
Ellie's anger arrived before tears.
“You're sorry?”
“I couldn't come back.”
“You were alive.”
“I had to protect you.”
“You let me bury you!”
Nicholas looked away.
The voice continued.
“If they believed Thomas Wells was dead, you and your mother became irrelevant.”
“My mother died believing you were gone.”
Another silence.
“I know.”
“You knew?”
“I watched from a distance.”
Ellie covered her mouth.
She hated him.
She loved the memory of him.
She wanted to hear him speak forever.
She wanted to throw the phone through the window.
“Why now?”
“Because Nicholas is finally close.”
Nicholas leaned toward the phone.
“Close to what, Daniel?”
“Anthony's proof.”
Nicholas went still.
“What proof?”
“The ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The reason your brother died.”
Ethan began tracing the call.
Daniel continued.
“It isn't money, Nicholas. Anthony tried to tell you.”
Nicholas remembered the note.
They're buying access.
“Where is it?”
Daniel laughed softly.
“You've sat beside it for six years.”
Nicholas frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“Table twelve.”
Ellie and Nicholas both looked toward the table.
Daniel continued.
“Anthony chose that restaurant because your father owned the building before anyone knew.”
Nicholas stood.
“Where?”
“Under the table.”
Ethan immediately checked.
Nothing.
Ellie crouched.
Ran her fingers beneath the wood.
Then felt a shallow groove.
A small panel.
She pulled.
A narrow compartment opened.
Inside lay an old brass key.
Nothing else.
Nicholas took it.
“What does this open?”
Daniel's voice became urgent.
“You need to leave.”
“Daniel—”
“They know you're there.”
The line went dead.
Ethan looked toward the front windows.
A black sedan had stopped across the street.
Then another.
Nicholas closed his hand around the key.
“We leave through the kitchen.”
Ellie didn't move.
“What does the key open?”
Nicholas looked at her.
“I don't know.”
Ellie glanced toward the wine cellar.
Then remembered something.
When she had first started at Fiore D’Oro, the chef had told her the basement used to connect to the building next door through old Prohibition tunnels.
One door had been sealed for decades.
Ellie ran downstairs.
Nicholas followed.
Behind the wine racks stood an iron door.
No handle.
Only an old brass keyhole.
Nicholas inserted the key.
It turned.
The door opened.
Behind it was not a tunnel.
It was a small room.
Shelves.
Boxes.
One desk.
And on the desk, covered with dust, sat a black ledger.
Nicholas approached slowly.
He opened it.
Names filled the pages.
Payments.
Dates.
Companies.
Officials.
Executives.
Then one name stopped him.
Victor Hale.
Another:
Daniel Rusk.
Ellie stared.
“My father is in it.”
Nicholas turned the page.
Beside Daniel's name, Anthony had written one word.
INFORMANT.
Ellie exhaled.
Her father hadn't been part of the conspiracy.
He had been helping expose it.
Nicholas turned another page.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Ellie asked.
Nicholas looked up.
“The last payment was authorized yesterday.”
“By who?”
He rotated the ledger.
Ellie read the signature.
It belonged to someone Nicholas had never once suspected.
May you like
His mother.
---
