Chapter 11 Half Of Everything

Nobody spoke.

I stood in the middle of Ethans office. Let Graces words sink in slowly. Your father is not who you think he is. The man trying to ruin your family is your fathers brother.

I looked at my mother.

She sat back down her hands folded in her lap her eyes on the floor. She looked like a woman who had been carrying a weight for twenty years and had just been told she could put it down but couldn't quite make her body do it.

"Mum."

She looked up at me.

"Is it true?"

A pause. Then she nodded once small, like even that tiny movement cost her something.

"Why " I said. "Why did you never tell me? My whole life and you never said a word."

"Because we thought we had protected you " she said. Her voice was quiet and careful like voices get when they've been rehearsing something for a long time. "Your father cut all ties with his brother before you were born. We thought it was over. We thought he had accepted it and moved on."

"He didn't move on " Grace said. She stood by the window arms folded, voice steady. "He spent twenty years building something in the background. Watching your family. Waiting for the moment to take what he thought was his."

"What does he think is his " I said.

"The company " Grace said. "Your grandfather built it. When he died he left everything to your father and nothing to his brother. Your uncle has never forgiven him for it. He thinks half of everything your father has built belongs to him by right.. Hes spent twenty years trying to take it."

I sat down.

Not because I chose to. My legs just stopped holding me

Twenty years. My whole life. There had been a man in the background watching us planning, waiting.. Daven had been his way in. Elena had been his tool. The wedding, the document, the forged signature. All of it had been one carefully built plan.. I had been the door he walked through without ever knowing I was open.

"Daven knew " I said. It wasn't a question.

"Daven was recruited " Grace said. "Two years before he ever met you. He was in debt. Your uncle offered to clear everything in exchange for getting close to you. Gaining your trust. Getting you to sign things without reading them."

Two years before he met me.

I thought about the day Daven walked into my life. How easy it had felt. How natural. How I had thought it was luck something good finally finding me. He had been placed there. Pointed directly at me.. I had opened the door wide and invited him all the way in.

"And Elena " I said.

"Elena came later " Grace said. "She was brought in when your uncle realised Daven was developing feelings for you and becoming unreliable. He needed someone to keep the plan on track. Elena was ambitious and unhappy. She was the perfect choice."

So Daven had told the truth this morning. He had been used too. That didn't make what he did forgivable.. It made it make a terrible kind of sense.

I looked at Ethan. He had been quiet through all of this. Standing to the side listening, watching me absorb everything.. His eyes hadn't left my face.

"You knew all of this " I said to him.

"I knew most of it " he said. "Grace confirmed the rest two days ago."

". You sat across from me and made me sign a contract without telling me any of it."

He didn't look away from me.

"I needed you close " he said. ". I needed you safe. The contract did both."

I stared at him. Part of me wanted to be angry. I had every right to be. Everyone in this room had known more than me. Had decided what I should and shouldn't be told.. I thought about what Ethan had actually done. Refused to cut me loose. Launched an investigation when walking away would have been easier. Put himself between me and everything coming at me without making me feel like I owed him for it.

He hadn't been protecting himself.

I looked away before I could feel too much about that.

"Where is he now " I said to Grace. "My uncle. Where is he?"

"That's the problem " Grace said. Something tighter came into her voice. "He knows the hard drive is gone. He'll know it was me.. When he realises where I've brought it -"

Her phone buzzed.

She looked at the screen.. For the first time since she stepped out of that elevator Grace Adler looked genuinely afraid.

"He knows " she said quietly.

Ethan was already moving. He picked up his desk phone spoke quickly looked at all three of us.

"We're moving. Now. All of you."

"Moving where " my mother said.

"Somewhere he can't reach you tonight " Ethan said. He was already at the door.

He looked at me last.. In that look was something I hadn't seen from him before. Not his usual calculation. Not his careful control.

Something that looked much like urgency.

Like for the time since all of this began Ethan Voss wasn't three steps ahead.

That frightened me more, than anything Grace had just said.