Chapter 3 - Ethan’s Brother
Marcus Hale arrived the next morning pretending he knew nothing.
He walked into the mansion wearing a navy overcoat.
“What happened?”
Ethan watched him carefully.
“Victoria is gone.”
Marcus froze for half a second.
Then:
“What do you mean gone?”
“Police investigation.”
“For what?”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
Marcus laughed nervously.
“I just got here.”
Ethan placed the baby-monitor clip on the television.
Victoria’s voice.
Then Marcus’s.
I don’t care about the boy. I care about Amelia’s shares.
Marcus stopped smiling.
Sarah stood near the doorway with Leo.
Detective Price waited nearby.
Marcus looked at his brother.
“That isn’t what it sounds like.”
Ethan almost laughed.
“That phrase is getting popular.”
Marcus sat slowly.
“Amelia’s shares belong to Leo.”
“Yes.”
“In trust.”
“Yes.”
Marcus rubbed his face.
“Ethan, our father’s company is collapsing.”
Hale Meridian Holdings.
A property and logistics company founded by Ethan and Marcus’s father, Jonathan Hale.
Amelia had inherited twenty-two percent through her own family’s early investment.
When she died, the shares passed to Leo’s trust.
Voting control remained with independent trustee until Leo turned twenty-five.
Unless a court-appointed guardian petitioned for limited voting representation.
Rebecca Sloan nodded.
“That’s possible under trust language.”
Ethan stared.
Marcus continued.
“The board vote is in six weeks.”
“What vote?”
“A sale.”
Ethan had been away from daily operations since Amelia’s death.
Marcus ran the company.
“A private equity group wants controlling stake.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“No.”
“Victoria said you weren’t ready.”
Ethan felt cold.
Victoria had been filtering business information too.
Marcus said:
“If Leo’s trust votes with me, we block sale.”
“You wanted access to his shares.”
“I wanted to save the company.”
“Through Victoria?”
Marcus looked away.
“She said once you married, she could help persuade you.”
“That isn’t what the recording says.”
Marcus closed eyes.
“I made a terrible joke.”
“It didn’t sound like joke.”
“No.”
He admitted meeting Victoria privately.
She learned Sarah’s guardianship status after finding Amelia’s file.
Marcus did not know how.
Victoria proposed removing Sarah from household by creating evidence she was untrustworthy.
Marcus claimed he refused.
“Then why keep talking to her?”
“Because she said she could secure Leo’s voting proxy legally.”
Rebecca interjected.
“Not automatically.”
Marcus shrugged.
“I’m not trust lawyer.”
Ethan’s anger sharpened.
“You were willing to manipulate my son’s guardian because of a board vote.”
Marcus said:
“I was trying to protect Dad’s company.”
Ethan stood.
“I’m tired of people protecting things.”
Marcus stared.
“Company employs three thousand people.”
That mattered.
Not excuse.
But stakes real.
Ethan sat again.
“Did you know she was hurting Leo?”
“No.”
“Did you know she was planting evidence?”
“I knew she wanted Sarah gone.”
“How?”
“I thought she’d convince you to fire her.”
“Did you know about money?”
“No.”
“The key?”
“No.”
“The monitor clips?”
“No.”
Detective Price asked:
“Did you provide Victoria with Amelia’s trust documents?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Yes.”
Ethan stared.
“Why did you have them?”
“Dad’s old archive.”
Jonathan Hale had died two years earlier.
Marcus found copies while reorganizing.
He gave Victoria the pages describing guardian voting rights.
That allowed her to understand Sarah’s significance.
Marcus had armed her.
Maybe unintentionally.
Still.
Then Detective Price asked:
“Who else knew?”
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
“Our mother.”
Ethan frowned.
“Mom?”
Margaret Hale.
Seventy.
Board chair emeritus.
Family matriarch.
She had pushed Ethan to marry Victoria quickly.
“You need a mother for Leo.”
She said it repeatedly.
Ethan suddenly remembered.
Margaret also disliked Sarah.
“She’s staff, Ethan.”
“Don’t let Leo confuse roles.”
Exactly Victoria’s language.
Ethan called Margaret.
No answer.
Then Rebecca received an email.
From Hale Meridian corporate counsel.
Emergency board meeting scheduled that afternoon.
Agenda:
Temporary Removal of Ethan Hale from Voting Committee Due to Personal Instability.
Ethan stared.
Marcus went pale.
“I didn’t call that.”
“Who did?”
Rebecca read.
Requested by:
Margaret Hale.
Ethan’s own mother was trying to remove him from the company while police investigated his fiancée.
Too perfectly timed.
Then Sarah noticed something else.
Victoria’s suitcase remained in guest suite.
Security had escorted her out without belongings.
Police searched with warrant after finding probable evidence of financial crimes.
Inside a hidden compartment in the suitcase they found:
* copies of Leo’s trust
* Sarah’s employment file
* forged complaints against Sarah
* psychiatric records belonging to Ethan after Amelia’s death
* and a draft petition declaring Ethan emotionally incapable of caring for Leo.
At the bottom was a handwritten note:
MARGARET WILL TESTIFY.
Ethan sat down.
His mother had not merely known.
May you like
She was part of the plan.
---
