Chapter 13 - THE SAFE BEHIND THE FIREPLACE
The safe was hidden behind a removable stone beside the fireplace.
Inside were cash, forged deeds, passports, and a small encrypted drive.
Ethan had recorded his meetings with Sabrina and Victor Hale.
He expected to use the files as leverage if either betrayed him.
Instead, they became the strongest evidence against him.
One recording was made the day before the storm.
Sabrina asked what would happen if Grace refused to sign.
Ethan replied:
“The road closes at ten. By morning, no one will know whether she walked away or drove.”
“What about the baby?”
There was a long pause.
Then Ethan said:
“The trust requires both of them gone.”
Grace left the room when prosecutors played that section.
She made it to the hallway before her knees weakened.
Margaret caught her.
“He said it like Lily was a signature problem,” Grace whispered.
“He will answer for it.”
Another recording revealed Victor Hale had bribed the county clerk and arranged the false death certificate.
The clerk was arrested.
The hospital employee who released Grace’s medical information accepted a plea agreement and lost her license.
Northcrest’s financial director admitted helping disguise the shell-company payments.
The conspiracy had reached farther than Grace imagined.
Yet one question remained.
How did Ethan know about Eleanor’s private trust clause?
Only Grace, Margaret, and Eleanor’s longtime accountant should have seen it.
The accountant, Henry Walsh, had died six months earlier.
Margaret reviewed his archived emails.
Two weeks before his death, Henry scheduled a meeting with Ethan.
The subject line read:
CONCERN REGARDING LILY HOLLOWAY TRUST.
Henry had discovered someone repeatedly accessing protected estate records.
He planned to warn Grace.
He died in a single-car accident before the meeting occurred.
The death had been ruled accidental.
Detective Reed reopened the file.
Ethan’s phone records placed him near Henry’s rural road that night.
Grace felt the floor shift beneath her again.
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The storm might not have been Ethan’s first attempt to silence someone.
👉 Ethan’s crimes had begun before Grace’s disappearance, and the reopened accident threatened to turn his attempted-murder case into something even darker.
