CHAPTER 6 — The Man Behind Everything
Ethan didn't wait for the police.
He followed the GPS hidden inside Lily's stuffed rabbit.
The signal led him to an abandoned steel factory outside the city.
Rain poured from the night sky as he walked inside.
The building echoed with silence.
Then...
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
Someone applauded from the shadows.
An elderly man stepped into the light.
Silver hair.
Tailored black suit.
Cold blue eyes.
Ethan stopped breathing.
"Uncle Richard?"
Richard Carter smiled.
"I wondered how long it would take you."
Ethan had believed his uncle died in a boating accident twenty years ago.
He hadn't.
He had been hiding.
Planning.
Waiting.
Richard laughed softly.
"Your father always enjoyed taking credit for my work."
"You think he created the empire?"
"He stole it from me."
Ethan's heart raced.
"Where's Lily?"
Richard pointed toward an old warehouse office.
"She's safe."
"For now."
Then Richard pressed a button.
A projector illuminated the wall.
Old surveillance footage began to play.
Young Ethan.
Emily.
Their wedding.
Their honeymoon.
The hospital where Lily was born.
Every moment had been secretly recorded.
"You watched us?"
Richard nodded.
"For years."
"I needed to know whether you deserved the Carter fortune."
Ethan stepped forward.
"You destroyed my family!"
Richard smiled again.
"No."
"I destroyed your father's family."
Then he revealed the truth no one had imagined.
"It wasn't your father who ordered Emily's disappearance."
"It was me."
"I wanted the Carter bloodline to suffer exactly as I had."
Emily gasped.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Even the federal agents listening through Ethan's hidden microphone couldn't believe what they were hearing.
Richard slowly opened a steel briefcase.
Inside...
were documents proving that every company owned by the Carter family had already been transferred into a secret trust.
A trust controlled by only one beneficiary.
Lily Carter.
The six-year-old girl everyone thought was just an innocent child...
had become the legal owner of a multi-billion-dollar empire without even knowing it.
Richard smiled one last time.
"Now tell me, Ethan..."
"Will you save your daughter..."
"...or your family's fortune?"
Behind Ethan, a timer suddenly began counting down.
09:59... 09:58... 09:57...
Someone had locked every exit.
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And the entire factory was wired with explosives.
To be continued...
