Chapter 6 - The Night Ethan Almost Told Her
Ethan Moretti had spent thirty years learning not to react before he understood a situation.
That discipline failed when he saw his brother.
Gabriel Moretti had been declared dead nineteen years earlier.
A boat fire off the coast of Maine.
No body recovered.
Only wreckage.
Ethan had identified Gabriel’s watch.
Their father had refused to hold a funeral for six months, insisting Gabriel would return.
He never did.
Until now.
Noah stared at the security image.
“I’ve only seen photographs.”
Ethan took the tablet.
The man beside Evelyn Shaw had aged.
Hair mostly gray.
Face thinner.
A scar along his jaw that Ethan did not remember.
But the eyes were Gabriel’s.
There was no doubt.
Olivia watched Ethan’s hands.
They did not tremble.
His voice did.
Barely.
“Lock the property.”
The officer hesitated.
“Sir, they left before we discovered the camera interruption.”
“How?”
“Service road.”
“Vehicles?”
“One sedan. Plates obscured.”
Ethan handed back the tablet.
“Find them.”
“Yes, sir.”
When they were alone again, Noah asked, “Why would Uncle Gabriel fake his death?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is the only answer I have.”
Ethan walked toward the window.
Dawn had begun softening the dark horizon.
Olivia wanted to touch him.
She did not.
Four years of restraint did not disappear simply because the truth had.
“Ethan.”
He looked at her.
“Were you close?”
“With Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“We were brothers.”
“That doesn’t answer it.”
Something almost like pride flickered in his face.
Olivia had learned his tactics too well.
“We were close until the year before he disappeared.”
“What changed?”
“Our father.”
Ethan looked toward Noah.
“This involves things you should have known years ago.”
Noah laughed bitterly.
“That sentence seems to be the Moretti family motto.”
Ethan accepted the criticism.
“My father built the old business around control. Shipping unions. Warehouses. Protection contracts.”
Olivia understood what he was carefully not saying.
The Moretti empire had once been criminal in ways the modern corporation was not.
“Gabriel wanted out,” Ethan continued. “I wanted reform.”
“And Antonio?”
“He wanted obedience.”
Noah sat down.
“Where did Mom fit?”
“She convinced me leaving everything would create a vacuum worse than staying.”
“So you took control.”
“I changed what I could.”
“And Gabriel?”
“He disappeared before I finished.”
Ethan’s eyes shifted toward Sophia’s letter.
“I believed he was dead.”
Olivia asked, “What does Evelyn have to do with it?”
“She kept my father’s private accounts.”
“The hidden money.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Ethan hesitated.
Noah noticed.
“Dad.”
“Eighty-six million dollars.”
Noah stood.
“What?”
“It would be worth considerably more now.”
“In accounts under my name?”
“Some.”
“Why?”
“I never knew.”
Olivia studied Ethan.
“You spent twenty years trying to figure it out.”
“Yes.”
“And failed?”
“Yes.”
That admission revealed how deeply the secret ran.
Ethan rarely failed to find anything.
Noah walked out of the room.
Olivia started after him.
Ethan stopped her.
“Give him a minute.”
“He just learned his childhood identity was used to hide eighty-six million dollars.”
“I know.”
“And his father loves the woman who rejected him tonight.”
Pain crossed Ethan’s face.
“Yes.”
Olivia turned toward him.
They were finally alone.
It should have been the moment she had imagined for years.
Instead they were surrounded by Sophia’s memories and a family mystery.
Perhaps that was appropriate.
Nothing between them had ever been simple.
Ethan looked at her.
“You should not have come here.”
“Why?”
“Because now you’re involved.”
“I became involved four years ago.”
“In my company.”
“In your life.”
He looked away.
Olivia stepped closer.
“Do not pretend you didn’t hear what happened downstairs.”
“I heard every word.”
“And?”
“And nothing.”
She almost laughed.
“Nothing?”
“Noah is hurting.”
“I know.”
“You work for me.”
“For now.”
His eyes snapped toward her.
“What does that mean?”
“I can’t keep being your executive secretary after tonight.”
“Why not?”
The question sounded absurdly sincere.
Olivia stared.
“Because I told two hundred people I’m in love with you.”
“That does not affect your competence.”
Despite herself, she laughed.
Ethan’s expression softened.
“You think this is funny?”
“I think only you could turn a romantic catastrophe into a performance review.”
He almost smiled.
Then the moment became quiet.
Olivia was close enough to see the fatigue beneath his eyes.
“Ethan.”
“Yes.”
“Do you love me?”
He said nothing.
“You told Noah you did.”
“I shouldn’t have.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
His jaw tightened.
“You deserve a life without this family’s complications.”
“That wasn’t my question either.”
“You are twenty years younger than I am.”
“Twenty-two.”
“Thank you for improving the argument.”
“You’re welcome.”
A reluctant smile appeared.
It disappeared quickly.
“You could have children.”
“So could you, theoretically.”
“Olivia.”
“You’re building reasons.”
He stared.
She remembered Sophia’s letter.
Age.
Family.
Duty.
Danger.
Past.
Sacrifice.
Every excuse Sophia predicted was already appearing.
Olivia moved one step closer.
“I’m not asking you to choose me tonight.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking you not to lie to me.”
His eyes lowered.
For several seconds Ethan Moretti—the man who negotiated billion-dollar acquisitions without hesitation—looked afraid.
Then he said, “Yes.”
Olivia forgot how to breathe.
“Yes what?”
“You know.”
“I need to hear it.”
His eyes met hers.
“I love you.”
The words were quiet.
Almost severe.
As though admitting them cost him something enormous.
Olivia’s eyes filled.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s exactly what I told Noah.”
“I know.”
They both smiled sadly.
Ethan continued.
“I knew something had changed the night your father was hospitalized.”
“That was my first year.”
“Yes.”
“You loved me for three years and said nothing?”
“Four.”
Her eyes widened.
“Four?”
“I think I started before the hospital.”
She laughed through tears.
“That’s incredibly irritating.”
“I’m aware.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Noah.”
“He only started having feelings later.”
“Sophia.”
“She literally wrote you a letter telling you not to do this.”
“I hadn’t read it.”
“Your reputation.”
“I don’t care.”
“My career.”
“That mattered.”
Olivia softened.
“At least one reasonable answer.”
Ethan looked toward her mouth.
It was the first unmistakably romantic thing he had ever allowed himself to do.
Olivia noticed.
So did he.
Neither moved.
Then Noah appeared at the doorway.
They stepped apart instinctively.
Noah saw.
Pain flashed across his face.
Olivia’s heart sank.
“I’m sorry.”
Noah lifted a hand.
“Please stop saying that.”
Ethan approached him.
“Noah.”
“I’m not ready.”
“I understand.”
“No, I mean I’m not ready to talk about you and Olivia.”
Ethan nodded.
“But I am ready to talk about Uncle Gabriel.”
He held up his phone.
“I searched the name Evelyn Shaw.”
“And?”
“She owns a house in Connecticut under another name.”
Ethan’s expression sharpened.
“How do you know?”
“Because she emailed me.”
Olivia stepped forward.
“When?”
“Three minutes ago.”
Noah turned the phone toward them.
The message contained an address and six words.
Come without security if you want answers.
Ethan immediately said, “No.”
Noah smiled without humor.
“I knew you’d say that.”
“You are not going.”
“I’m thirty.”
“You’re my son.”
“And apparently the reason somebody hid eighty-six million dollars.”
Ethan stared.
Noah put the phone into his pocket.
“I’m going.”
“So am I.”
“No security.”
“We’ll discuss that.”
“No.”
“Not negotiable.”
For the first time that night, father and son looked almost normal.
Olivia realized she was smiling.
Then Noah turned toward her.
“You’re not coming.”
Olivia crossed her arms.
“That sounded almost like your father.”
“Take it as an insult.”
Ethan said, “He’s right.”
Olivia looked at both men.
“Absolutely not.”
Noah sighed.
Ethan closed his eyes.
For one absurd moment, the greatest Moretti family crisis in twenty years became three stubborn people arguing in a dead woman’s study at sunrise.
Then Noah’s phone vibrated again.
A second message from Evelyn.
This time there was a photograph attached.
It showed Gabriel Moretti sitting beside a hospital bed.
A woman lay beneath white sheets.
Olivia zoomed in.
Her stomach dropped.
The woman in the bed was Margaret Carter.
Her mother.
Beneath the photo were four words.
Bring Olivia. She decides.
And suddenly the Moretti mystery was no longer about hidden money.
May you like
It was about Olivia’s family too.
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