Chapter 20 - WHAT ETHAN LEFT BEHIND
Six months after Gabriel’s arrest, Sophia returned to the cottage one final time.
She and Lily were moving into a small house closer to Isabella’s school.
The girls had become inseparable.
Lorenzo had offered Sophia a larger home.
She refused.
She wanted something she could call her own.
While packing the final box, Lily found an old wooden toy truck beneath the bed.
“It was Daddy’s.”
Sophia smiled.
Ethan had given it to Lily before she was old enough to remember him.
One wheel was loose.
Sophia turned it over.
Something rattled inside.
She removed the wooden base.
A small flash drive fell into her palm.
Sophia stared at it.
Ethan had hidden another copy.
That evening, she took it to Lorenzo.
They opened the files together.
There were shipping records.
Photographs.
Audio files.
And one final video.
Ethan appeared on the screen.
He looked tired.
But he smiled.
“Sophia.”
“If you found this, then Lily probably found the truck.”
Sophia laughed through her tears.
“She always finds everything.”
Ethan’s expression became serious.
“I need you to know something.”
“I did work for Gabriel.”
“At first, I thought it was legitimate freight.”
“When I learned the truth, I stayed long enough to gather evidence.”
“I wanted to protect you.”
“I’m sorry I kept secrets.”
Sophia wiped her eyes.
Then Ethan said something unexpected.
“There’s someone inside Moretti International who helped me.”
Lorenzo leaned closer to the screen.
“He saved my life twice.”
“He gave me the chapel symbol.”
“He told me Gabriel had murdered Elena.”
Lorenzo and Sophia exchanged a look.
Ethan continued.
“I never learned his real name.”
“But Gabriel called him Shepherd.”
The video ended.
Silence filled the room.
Lorenzo searched the recovered records.
No one named Shepherd appeared anywhere.
Federal investigators had never heard the name.
Gabriel refused to answer questions.
Weeks passed.
Life slowly became normal.
Sophia began her new job.
Lily returned to school.
Isabella started sleeping through the night.
Lorenzo visited Elena’s grave and finally told his daughter the truth in a way she could understand.
One Saturday afternoon, Sophia and the girls were helping prepare a small garden behind the foundation office.
A delivery truck stopped outside.
The driver handed Sophia a package.
“No return address.”
Sophia opened it.
Inside was a bronze key.
Not one of the original three.
A fourth key.
Lorenzo arrived minutes later.
Sophia showed it to him.
There was a note beneath the key.
Lorenzo read it aloud.
Gabriel was not the beginning.
Sophia felt the familiar chill run through her body.
On the reverse side was an address.
New Orleans.
And beneath it, one name.
SHEPHERD.
Sophia looked at Lorenzo.
“Ethan knew there was more.”
Lorenzo stared at the key.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A calm male voice spoke.
“You found Gabriel.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
The man continued.
“Now decide whether you want to know who created him.”
The call ended.
Sophia looked toward Lily and Isabella playing safely in the garden.
For six months, she had believed the nightmare was over.
She had been wrong.
Gabriel Moretti had been one branch.
Valentina had been another.
But somewhere beyond Nashville was the person who knew Ethan.
The person who knew Elena.
The person who had been watching Gabriel long before Sophia ever entered the Moretti estate.
And now that person wanted Sophia to find him.
She closed her hand around the fourth bronze key.
This time, she was not a frightened housekeeper hiding behind a service cart.
She was not invisible.
She was not powerless.
May you like
And anyone who came for her daughter again was going to learn exactly what that meant.
TOBE CONTINUED
