morning

Chapter 26

Morning

By seven the sky was fully light.

Nobody in the apartment had slept. Lily was still asleep in the bedroom but the rest of them sat around the kitchen table, the notepad between them, three cups of cold coffee nobody had finished.

Ethan’s phone rang first.

He looked at the screen. “Elena.”

He answered and put it on speaker.

“I found something,” Elena said. Her voice was fast. “Whitmore owns a company called Hartfield Logistics. It is registered in Geneva. Ethan, your father’s company has been making payments to Hartfield every month for the last twelve years. Same amount, same date, every single month.”

“How much,” Ethan asked.

“Two hundred thousand pounds.”

The table went quiet.

“That is not a business arrangement,” Dan said. “That is rent.”

“Rent for what,” Judith asked.

Nobody answered.

Elena spoke again. “There is something else. I checked the news this morning. There is a press release going out at nine o’clock. From a law firm representing the Blackwood family.” She paused. “It names Judith Thompson. It says she is being investigated for financial fraud connected to her marriage contract.”

Judith’s hands went still on the table.

“At nine,” Ethan said.

“Yes.”

He looked at the clock on the wall. Seven fifteen.

“That gives us less than two hours,” he said.

Dan stood up. “We need a lawyer. Now.”

“A lawyer will not stop a press release,” Ethan said. “Once it is out, it is out. The damage happens the moment people read it, whether it is true or not.”

“Then what do we do,” Judith said.

Ethan looked at the folder on the table. The one Robert had given him. He opened it and started going through the pages quickly.

“There is a way to stop this,” he said. “But it means going public with everything. The recording. The accounts. Whitmore’s name. All of it. Before nine o’clock.”

“That is not a plan,” Dan said. “That is two hours.”

“It is what we have.”

Judith stood up. “Then we use it.”

Both brothers looked at her.

“My father died because he found something and tried to expose it before he was ready,” Judith said. “He did it alone and it killed him.” She looked at Ethan, then Dan. “We are not alone. And we are not going to wait for them to destroy us first.”

Ethan’s phone buzzed again. A text this time.

He read it and his face changed.

“What,” Dan said.

Ethan turned the phone around so they could see it.

It was from his father.

Whatever you are planning, stop now. You do not understand what you are dealing with. This is your last chance, Ethan.

“He knows,” Judith said quietly.

“He has known since last night,” Ethan said. “Whitmore told him.”

Dan looked at his brother. “Are you going to stop.”

Ethan put the phone down on the table.

“No,” he said.

At seven thirty, Elena called again.

“I have the contact details for three major newspapers,” she said. “Real journalists. People who will check facts before they print anything. If we send them the recording and the financial records together, with an explanation, they can have something ready before nine. Maybe before. It will not stop the press release completely but it will give people something else to look at at the same time.”

“Do it,” Ethan said.

“I need your authorization. On record. Because once this goes out there is no taking it back.”

Ethan looked around the table. At Judith. At Dan. At the notepad full of names that had taken all night to write down.

“Send it,” he said. “Everything. My name on it.”

“Ethan—”

“Send it, Elena.”

There was a pause. Then, “Okay. Sending now.”

The call ended.

The kitchen was quiet.

Judith looked at the clock. Seven thirty four.

“What happens now,” she said.

“Now we wait,” Ethan said. “And we make sure Lily does not see any of this when it happens.”

As if on cue, a small voice came from the hallway.

“Mummy?”

Lily stood in the doorway in her pajamas, rubbing her eyes.

Judith stood up immediately and went to her, crouching down. “Hey sweetheart. Did you sleep well?”

Lily nodded. Then she looked past Judith at the two men sitting at the table.

“Why is everyone awake,” she said. “Is something wrong?”

Judith glanced back at Ethan and Dan. Then she looked at her daughter and smiled.

“No,” she said. “Nothing is wrong. We just woke up early. Do you want some breakfast?”

Lily nodded, satisfied, and let Judith lead her toward the kitchen.

Behind them, Ethan checked his phone again.

Seven forty.

One hour and twenty minutes.