He Lost His Memory In A Crash, Then A Small-Town American Woman’s Kindness Changed His Life
Chapter 6
The investigation changed Ethan.
He stopped trying to remember his old life.
Instead, he started trying to understand it.
With Clara beside him, he reconstructed years of financial records.
Every transfer.
Every shell company.
Every suspicious contract.
They discovered that Northstar Consulting had been receiving money through dozens of subsidiaries.
The total exceeded eighty million dollars.
But the most disturbing part was that Ethan’s name appeared on nearly every approval.
Clara frowned.
“You could have been stealing from your own company.”
“I could have.”
“But you didn’t know.”
“I don’t know what I knew.”
She looked at him.
“Do you trust yourself?”
Ethan thought about it.
“No.”
“Then trust the evidence.”
They kept searching.
Eventually, they found Victoria Lane.
Not physically.
But through an old property record.
She had purchased a small house in Wisconsin under another name.
Ethan called the number attached to the property.
A woman answered.
“Hello?”
“Victoria?”
Silence.
“Who is this?”
“Ethan Cole.”
The line went dead.
Clara stared at him.
“She hung up.”
A message arrived seconds later.
Don’t call again.
Ethan typed:
I need to know what happened.
Another message appeared.
Then come alone.
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
“I have to go.”
“Not alone.”
“She asked.”
“Exactly.”
He looked at her.
“You’re worried.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because every time you get close to the truth, someone tries to scare you away.”
Ethan smiled faintly.
“You care about me.”
Clara looked down.
“I care about people.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
She didn’t answer.
The next morning, they drove to Wisconsin together.
Victoria opened the door with a baseball bat in her hands.
She was older than Ethan remembered from the photographs.
Her hair was gray.
Her face tired.
She stared at him.
“You survived.”
“Apparently.”
“Do you remember me?”
“Pieces.”
Victoria stepped aside.
“Come in.”
She explained everything.
Years earlier, Jonathan Cole had built a network of shell companies to steal money from Cole Meridian.
But Ethan had discovered it.
“He confronted me,” Victoria said.
“Why didn’t he stop you?”
“Because he didn’t know how much I had found.”
“What happened?”
“You wanted to expose him.”
Ethan frowned.
“Then why did the records show me approving everything?”
Victoria looked at him.
“Because your signature was being duplicated.”
“By whom?”
“Someone with access to your private authorization system.”
Ethan felt a headache.
“Who?”
Victoria handed him a photograph.
It showed Jonathan.
Beside him stood Ethan’s chief financial officer, David Mercer.
Ethan stared.
“Both of them?”
Victoria nodded.
“They worked together.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
She looked directly into his eyes.
“You just don’t remember.”
Then she gave him another file.
Inside was a recording.
Ethan played it.
His own voice filled the room.
If anything happens to me, send everything to Mercy Creek.
Clara looked at him.
Ethan’s face went pale.
His recorded voice continued.
The only person I trust there is Margaret Bennett.
Clara covered her mouth.
Ethan stared at her.
“I came here because of your mother.”
Clara shook her head.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know.”
Victoria whispered:
“You weren’t supposed to remember until it was safe.”
Then someone fired a shot through the window.
