Chapter 13 - THE BEST MAN
Daniel Monroe had stood six feet from Ethan at the altar.
He had held the rings.
Made jokes.
Hugged him.
Called him brother.
Now police were searching for him.
Claire sat inside an ambulance outside Ashcroft, staring at nothing.
“My brother knew?”
Thomas paced in the rain.
“I don’t believe it.”
Richard sat handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser.
Ethan had never seen his father look small before.
Nora sat beside Ethan under a blanket.
She kept watching him.
As if afraid he might vanish.
Ethan noticed.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
She smiled weakly.
“You can’t promise that.”
“Tonight I can.”
Claire’s phone rang.
Daniel.
Everyone froze.
Thomas reached for it.
Claire pulled away.
“No.”
She answered.
“Daniel.”
Her brother’s voice came through calmly.
“Are you okay?”
Claire laughed.
It sounded painful.
“You tried to have Nora kidnapped.”
Silence.
“Who told you that?”
“So it’s true.”
“No.”
“Then why did you pay Charles Vane?”
Another silence.
Daniel sighed.
“Dad spent thirty years building Monroe Capital.”
Thomas shouted, “Put him on speaker.”
Claire did.
Daniel continued.
“If the Hale merger collapsed after signing, both companies were going to bleed.”
“So you kidnapped a woman?”
“I tried to contain a threat.”
Nora’s face went cold.
“A threat.”
Daniel heard her.
“Nora?”
Ethan took the phone.
“You stood beside me while I got married.”
“Ethan, this was business.”
“You kidnapped my mother.”
“I didn’t tell Vane to hurt her.”
“Do you hear yourself?”
“Listen to me. Vane had documents that could destroy thousands of jobs.”
“No. The truth could expose criminals.”
“You think shareholders care about that distinction?”
Ethan gripped the phone.
“Where are you?”
Daniel laughed quietly.
“You really think I’m telling you?”
Ethan looked at Claire.
She understood immediately.
Keep him talking.
Ethan said, “You wanted the merger that badly?”
“I wanted what was promised to us.”
“By Richard?”
“By both fathers.”
Thomas shouted, “I promised you nothing!”
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“You promised me the company!”
Thomas went silent.
There it was.
Not money.
Resentment.
Claire had always been her father’s favorite.
Ethan understood.
The merger would have made Claire and Ethan the public faces of both companies.
Daniel would have been pushed aside.
“You weren’t protecting the merger,” Ethan said.
Daniel stopped talking.
“You were protecting your position.”
Still nothing.
Claire looked sick.
Ethan continued.
“If the scandal came out after the merger, you could blame Richard, force Thomas out, and take control.”
Daniel laughed.
“Maybe you’re smarter than you look.”
A police technician across the parking lot raised three fingers.
Trace in progress.
Three.
Two.
Daniel suddenly said, “Tell Claire I’m sorry.”
Claire took the phone.
“For what?”
“Everything after this.”
The call ended.
The technician shouted.
“We got him.”
“Where?”
He looked up.
Then toward Claire.
“The church.”
Claire’s face drained.
Their wedding reception hall.
Thomas whispered, “Why would he go back there?”
Ethan already knew.
“The contracts.”
The signed merger papers were still locked in Richard’s private briefcase beneath the reception hall.
Claire stood.
“If Daniel destroys those contracts, he destroys evidence.”
Ethan looked toward the city.
Nora grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t go.”
He squeezed her hand.
“I have to.”
She stared at him with the same fear she must have felt twenty-five years earlier.
Ethan leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
“I’ll come back.”
Then they heard an officer shout from across the parking lot.
“Fire department just got a call.”
Ethan turned.
The officer’s face was grim.
May you like
“St. Matthew’s is on fire.”
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