Why Ethan Had Been Hired
Chapter 17 - Why Ethan Had Been Hired
Ethan stared at the application.
He had filled it out eight months earlier.
"What is this?"
Madison sat across from him.
"My father found it in Blake's files."
Ethan's confusion deepened.
"Blake interviewed me."
"I know."
"He barely looked at me."
Madison nodded.
"That was the point."
Years earlier, after Sophie's death, Ethan's mother had sued a small transportation contractor whose employee had left the child unattended.
The contractor later went bankrupt.
One of its silent investors had been Blake.
Ethan went pale.
"No."
"Blake's name wasn't public then."
"Why hire me?"
Madison hesitated.
"We think he recognized your last name."
Ethan stood.
"So he knew who I was?"
"Maybe."
"Why would he want me around?"
Walter, sitting nearby, answered.
"Control."
Blake had a habit of keeping potential problems close.
If Ethan ever learned about the old company connection, Blake wanted to know first.
But Blake had underestimated him.
He assumed Ethan was just another poor kid desperate for a paycheck.
He never imagined Ethan would become the person who exposed the worst thing Blake had done.
Ethan felt anger rising.
Not because Blake had hired him.
Because suddenly Sophie was inside this story too.
Again.
"I don't want this," he said.
Madison stood.
"You don't have to do anything with it."
"Was he responsible for her death?"
"No evidence says that."
"Then I don't want people pretending he was."
Madison nodded.
That answer surprised her.
Ethan could have used the connection.
He could have made Blake into the villain of every tragedy in his life.
Instead, he refused a lie that would have benefited him.
June watched him with tears in her eyes.
Later, Ethan burned a copy of the application in a metal bowl behind the house.
Not to destroy evidence.
The original stayed with investigators.
He burned his copy because he was tired of letting Blake own space in his life.
As the paper curled into ash, Ethan whispered Sophie's name.
Then he said goodbye.
But one question remained.
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If Blake's company had once been connected to Sophie's case, there were other families who might never have gotten answers.
And Ethan was not the only one ready to start asking.
