Chapter 13 - The Woman Who Told Me I Couldn’t Survive Alone
Ofelia had spent years making me feel small.
She criticized my clothes.
My cooking.
My inability to give her grandchildren.
My decision to care for my dying father.
My decision to stop working.
Then, somehow, she criticized me for not working.
There had been days when I had imagined never seeing her again.
Not once had I imagined someone using her life to threaten mine.
“She’s still family,” I said.
Richard nodded.
“I know.”
Laura looked at me carefully.
“Police are moving.”
“How did Ethan get to her?”
“We don't know.”
I called Ofelia.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Ethan called.
“Bring the drive.”
“You don't have it.”
“Don't lie.”
“I sent copies to three different people.”
Silence.
“You’re bluffing.”
“You’re not very good at judging me.”
“Come alone.”
“No.”
“If I see police—”
“You’ll what?”
My voice shook with anger.
“Kill a seventy-year-old woman because your accounting crimes are collapsing?”
Silence.
“Listen to yourself, Ethan.”
He hung up.
Police traced the call to an industrial district near Northbrook.
An abandoned warehouse leased through one of Ethan’s shell vendors.
Perfect.
They told me to stay behind.
This time, I listened.
Not because Richard ordered me.
Because there was nothing useful I could do by being closer.
That distinction mattered.
We waited at the estate.
Richard sat near the windows.
I paced.
“You're going to wear a path into the floor,” he said.
“Then your mansion gets character.”
He smiled faintly.
“You hate her.”
“No.”
“You don't?”
“I hated what she did to me.”
“Difference?”
“Yes.”
I stopped pacing.
“Ofelia is cruel because she thinks cruelty keeps her powerful. But she isn't Ethan.”
Richard nodded.
“My mother isn't Ethan either.”
“No.”
“Yet we both allowed their behavior to define too much of our lives.”
That surprised me.
“Are you comparing Eleanor and Ofelia?”
“Not morally.”
He looked toward the staircase.
“But both were women afraid of losing control.”
We waited another hour.
Then Laura called.
“They found Ofelia.”
I nearly collapsed.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Ethan?”
“Gone.”
Ofelia had been locked inside an office.
Unharmed physically.
Terrified.
Ethan had abandoned the building minutes before police arrived.
There was now a full search underway.
Ofelia came to the estate because police didn't want her returning home.
When she entered, she looked twenty years older.
No pearls.
No perfect hair.
No superiority.
Just fear.
I helped her sit.
For several minutes, she said nothing.
Then she began crying.
“I thought he was going to kill me.”
I handed her water.
“I’m sorry.”
She stared at me.
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why are you helping me?”
The question was so absurd I almost became angry.
“Because you were kidnapped.”
“But after everything—”
“Helping you doesn't erase what you did.”
Her face crumpled.
“I was terrible to you.”
“Yes.”
She seemed startled by the direct answer.
“I thought you depended on Miguel.”
“I did.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“I needed you to depend on him.”
That was unexpected.
“Why?”
“Because if Miguel needed you, then he didn't need me.”
I stared.
Ofelia looked down.
“My husband left when Miguel was eleven.”
I knew that.
“He found another woman.”
I hadn't known.
“I spent my life terrified Miguel would leave me too.”
“So you controlled him.”
“Yes.”
“And me.”
“Yes.”
She wiped her face.
“When you couldn't have children, I blamed you because…”
She stopped.
“Because what?”
“Because part of me was relieved.”
I stared.
“If you had children, Miguel would belong to a new family completely.”
The confession was ugly.
But truthful.
“I’m sorry, Maya.”
For years, I had imagined hearing those words.
They did not magically heal me.
They did something more useful.
They allowed me to stop waiting for them.
“I accept that you’re sorry.”
Her eyes lifted.
“Do you forgive me?”
“Not today.”
She nodded slowly.
“That’s fair.”
Richard watched from across the room.
Later, Ofelia told investigators everything she knew about Miguel and Ethan.
Including the ten-thousand-dollar cash payment.
She had seen Miguel hide it.
She had asked where it came from.
He lied.
She chose not to question further.
Another family silence.
Another disaster.
That night, Richard asked me to sit with him.
“Do you feel better?”
“No.”
“Worse?”
“Different.”
He nodded.
“Maybe that's what closure actually is.”
“What?”
“Not feeling good. Just no longer waiting.”
I looked at him.
“That’s annoyingly insightful.”
“I’m an executive. We occasionally say useful things.”
I laughed.
It felt good.
At eleven, police located Ethan’s abandoned car near Lake Forest.
Blood on the steering wheel.
Not much.
No body.
No Ethan.
Chloe remained in custody and began cooperating fully.
She provided passwords.
Account names.
Communication records.
She admitted helping hide Northstar transfers.
She denied knowing Ethan intended serious physical harm to Richard.
Investigators would decide what could be proven.
At two a.m., Chloe asked to speak with Richard.
He refused.
Then changed his mind.
The conversation happened by secure video.
Chloe looked destroyed.
“Richard.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
She flinched.
“You don't get to use that word yet.”
“I understand.”
“Where is Ethan?”
“I don't know.”
“What would he do?”
“If he thought everything was lost?”
“Yes.”
Chloe hesitated.
“He’d go after the original Northstar server.”
“Where?”
“Old research facility.”
Richard’s face changed.
“Waukegan?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the offline archive is still there.”
Nora confirmed it.
A decommissioned Vance Medical research building near Waukegan.
Police moved immediately.
At 3:17 a.m., Richard received a message.
Not me.
Richard.
A photograph of the old laboratory.
Then a message:
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT DAD.
Richard went pale.
“What does that mean?”
He didn't answer.
“Richard?”
“My father died in that facility.”
“What?”
“Cardiac arrest.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
The same year Ethan’s financial problems began.
A second message arrived.
YOU THINK THE ACCIDENT WAS THE FIRST TIME I HAD TO FIX ONE OF YOUR MISTAKES?
I stared at Richard.
“What mistake?”
“I don't know.”
But the fear in his face told me something else.
He had a suspicion.
One he had never shared.
May you like
And Ethan had just found the only secret powerful enough to make Richard consider walking voluntarily into a trap.
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