The Secret Emma Took to Her Grave
Chapter 05 - The Secret Emma Took to Her Grave
Ethan felt the room tilt beneath him.
"Charles?"
Richard folded the letter.
"My younger brother."
The name meant nothing to Lily.
But Ethan remembered it.
Charles Whitmore.
The second name in Hale & Whitmore.
For twenty years, Charles had managed much of the family's financial empire while Richard focused on the jewelry business.
"Emma never talked about him," Ethan said.
Richard's face hardened.
"Apparently, there was a reason."
The next morning, Richard invited Ethan and Lily to his home.
Ethan nearly refused.
He did not want money.
He did not want pity.
And after everything Emma had suffered, he certainly did not want to pretend Richard had suddenly earned the right to be Lily's grandfather.
But he needed answers.
Richard showed Ethan a box of documents.
Years earlier, shortly after Emma married Ethan, someone had sent Richard photographs supposedly showing Ethan meeting another woman.
There were also bank records suggesting Ethan had accepted fifty thousand dollars to disappear from Emma's life.
"I never received money from anyone," Ethan said.
Richard stared at the documents.
"I believed you had."
"And you never asked Emma?"
"I was angry."
"That's your excuse?"
Richard looked away.
Ethan stood.
"You destroyed your relationship with your daughter because somebody handed you photographs?"
"I thought I was protecting her."
"No. You were protecting your pride."
Richard did not argue.
Because Ethan was right.
Then Lily entered the room carrying her teddy bear.
"Grandpa Richard?"
Both men froze.
It was the first time she had called him that.
Richard's eyes filled with tears.
Lily held out a folded piece of paper.
"I found this inside Mr. Buttons."
Ethan recognized Emma's handwriting immediately.
His wife had sewn something inside their daughter's teddy bear.
Ethan opened the note.
May you like
There was only one sentence.
Ethan, when Lily finally meets my father, tell him Charles knows why I was forced to disappear.
