I Decided to Surprise My Wife at the Airport Pickup — Then She Walked Out Holding Another Man’s Hand
Chapter 6
Ethan refused to believe it.
His mother had spent her entire life volunteering at a church.
She had raised him after his father died.
She had always told him that his father had been an honest businessman.
Now Nathan was telling him both his parents had been involved in something criminal.
“Where is my mother?”
Ethan asked.
Olivia looked down.
“She disappeared six months ago.”
“What?”
“She knew something was coming.”
Ethan grabbed his phone.
No signal.
Nathan stopped him.
“Don’t call her.”
“Why?”
“Because if they know you’re looking for her, they’ll move her.”
Ethan stared at him.
“You think she’s alive?”
“I think she knows where the money is.”
“What money?”
“The money your father hid.”
Nathan opened another file.
A photograph showed Ethan’s father standing beside a safe.
Underneath was an address.
Ethan recognized it.
His childhood home.
His mother’s house.
They drove there before sunrise.
The house was empty.
Dust covered the furniture.
The front door had been forced open.
Ethan walked through the rooms.
Memories flooded back.
His mother’s kitchen.
His father’s office.
The old piano.
Then he noticed something.
A loose floorboard.
He pulled it up.
Inside was a small metal box.
A key sat inside.
The key had one word engraved on it:
AIRPORT.
Ethan stared.
Olivia looked at Nathan.
Nathan’s face changed.
“What?”
“There are storage lockers at the airport.”
Ethan remembered his surprise.
The flowers.
The terminal.
The airport.
He suddenly understood.
Someone had known he would be there.
The messages.
The photograph.
Everything had been designed to bring him to the airport.
But why?
Nathan whispered:
“They wanted you to see Olivia with me.”
Ethan stared.
“What?”
“The affair.”
“It wasn’t real.”
“I know.”
“Then what was the point?”
Nathan looked at him.
“To make you angry.”
“Why?”
“So you’d start investigating.”
Ethan’s heart pounded.
“This was all planned.”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
Nathan’s phone rang.
He answered.
A voice said:
“You finally figured it out.”
Then the call ended.
Nathan looked at Ethan.
“They’re here.”
