Chapter 16 - The Hidden Truth
The private security phone on the desk in the guest suite blinked silently. Ethan, who had just finished dismantling his mother’s corporate ambush, picked up the receiver with a sharp, guarded snap.
"Caldwell speaking."
"Doctor Caldwell, my name is Leo. I run the floor operations at the Cicero packaging plant where Hannah collapsed," a gravelly voice came through the static. "I found your name on some old papers in her locker after she was rushed to the hospital."
Ethan’s posture instantly stiffened. He glanced over his shoulder toward the bed, where Hannah was sleeping peacefully under the watchful eye of a nurse. He stepped out into the private hallway, pulling the door closed behind him.
"What kind of papers?" Ethan demanded, his voice dropping into a tense whisper.
"A gold-embossed medical journal with your family crest, and a stack of unopened letters postmarked five years ago," Leo replied bluntly. "Look, Doctor, I don't know what went down between you two half a decade ago, but Hannah wasn't living in Cicero because she wanted to run away from you. She was hiding. And from the looks of these letters, someone in your inner circle went to great lengths to make sure you two never crossed paths."
Ethan’s heart skipped a beat, a cold dread washing over his stomach. "What are you talking about? Explain yourself."
"Meet me at the diner off 4th Street in Cicero in forty minutes," Leo said. "Bring your ID and be alone. I’ve got something you need to see with your own eyes—including a bank record showing where that five-thousand-dollar hush money check actually went, and who forged the signature."
Without waiting for an answer, the line went dead.
Ethan stood frozen in the hallway, the phone pressed against his ear as the dial tone buzzed in the background. Five years of anger, betrayal, and bitter resentment suddenly fractured under the weight of a terrifying possibility.
She was hiding.
He turned around, quietly opening the door to check on Hannah. She was still fast asleep, her breathing deep and even, exhaustion finally claiming her battered body.
May you like
Ethan made his decision in a fraction of a second. He grabbed his black cashmere coat, signaled the head private nurse to lock the suite doors from the inside, and strode toward the private elevator.
Forty minutes later, his black Mercedes SUV pulled into the gravel parking lot of a rundown diner on the industrial outskirts of Cicero.
