Chapter 9 - The Name on the Screen
The message contained only four words.
Ask your mother why.
Ethan stared at the screen.
His mother had been dead for eight years.
There was no way.
Unless...
He remembered something.
His mother had left behind a private journal.
Richard had always told him it contained nothing important.
Ethan had never questioned him.
Now he did.
Lily helped him search the old storage room.
They found the journal inside a locked trunk.
The first pages contained ordinary memories.
Then Ethan found the final entry.
Richard knows.
He stopped.
The next line:
He believes Ethan's inheritance should belong to Vanessa.
Another:
If anything happens to me, do not trust my brother.
Ethan's hands shook.
His mother had known.
She had tried to warn him.
But the final page was missing.
Lily looked at the torn binding.
“Someone removed it.”
Ethan nodded.
“Richard.”
Then they heard a car outside.
Vanessa.
She entered the room.
“What are you doing?”
Ethan closed the journal.
“Looking for something.”
She smiled.
“You shouldn't be digging through old family things.”
“Why?”
“Because some things are better left alone.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Like my mother's journal?”
Her face changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
“You found it.”
“You knew about it.”
Vanessa said nothing.
Ethan rolled closer.
“Who is the unknown number?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
Her eyes hardened.
“Because you're becoming paranoid.”
She turned to leave.
Ethan spoke quietly.
“Vanessa.”
She stopped.
“If you really loved me, you would have stayed.”
She looked back.
“I did stay.”
“No.”
Ethan's expression remained calm.
“You stayed for what you thought I'd leave behind.”
Vanessa's face went pale.
For the first time, she looked frightened.
She walked away without answering.
Ethan watched her leave.
Then he opened his mother's journal again.
One sentence had been written beneath the missing page.
May you like
The person you need to fear isn't Richard.
👉 Ethan had spent months watching Vanessa and Richard, but his mother's final warning suggested he had been looking in the wrong direction.
