Chapter 6 - THE MOTHER’S SECRET Eleanor Cole lived forty miles north of Daniel.
Elegant.
Controlled.
Seventy-one years old.
Chairwoman emeritus of the Cole Foundation.
Daniel drove to her estate before sunrise.
Marcus accompanied him.
Eleanor was already awake.
She sat at the breakfast table drinking tea.
When Daniel entered, she looked at his wet shoes from the rain outside.
“You should have called.”
Daniel placed Rachel’s photograph on the table.
“Did you order her disappearance?”
Eleanor’s hand stopped.
Marcus saw it.
Daniel saw it.
“Answer me.”
Eleanor looked toward Marcus.
“Leave us.”
“No.”
Daniel remained standing.
“Did you order Rachel taken?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Daniel felt the room tilt.
Marcus stepped closer.
Daniel raised one hand.
Not yet.
“Why?”
“To save her.”
Daniel laughed once.
Broken.
“You people keep saying that.”
“It’s true.”
“You stole my wife for eleven months.”
“I gave her a choice.”
Daniel remembered Adrian’s words.
Forty minutes.
Eleanor continued.
“Rachel discovered Thomas had corrupted Orpheus.”
“You knew?”
“I created Orpheus.”
Daniel stared.
Eleanor explained.
Years earlier, after a foundation witness was murdered before federal protection could relocate him, Eleanor financed an off-books system to hide threatened whistleblowers.
New identities.
Safe houses.
Private transportation.
It began as protection.
Thomas turned it into leverage.
He discovered the network could make people disappear.
Then he used it for money.
Blackmail.
Extortion.
Rachel discovered everything.
Eleanor ordered Adrian to extract her before Thomas could kill her.
“Why not tell me?”
“Because Thomas watched you.”
“You let me mourn her.”
“I kept Sophie alive.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“You don’t get to decide what pain my family can survive.”
Eleanor looked down.
“No.”
For the first time, she sounded old.
“I don’t.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“Where is Rachel?”
Eleanor looked toward the window.
“Montana.”
Daniel stopped.
“She’s been in Montana?”
“Not all eleven months.”
“Where?”
“A town called Silver Pine.”
Daniel turned.
Eleanor spoke.
“You can’t simply go.”
He looked back.
“Watch me.”
“She has been preparing evidence.”
“I don’t care.”
“You will when you understand what happens if Thomas reaches her first.”
May you like
Daniel’s voice became ice.
“He won’t.”
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