Chapter 6 - MAX RETURNS
Ethan pulled Rebecca behind a storage cabinet.
Headlights swept across the garage.
Max entered.
Alone.
He looked terrible.
He moved quickly toward the locked drawer.
When he found it empty, he cursed.
Ethan stepped out.
“Looking for something?”
Max spun.
Rebecca emerged beside him.
Max closed his eyes.
“Jesus.”
Rebecca held up the birth certificate.
“Who was Sophie?”
Max looked at her.
No answer.
Rebecca’s voice trembled.
“Who was she?”
“My employee.”
“Your employee?”
“Yes.”
“And the child?”
Max looked away.
“My son.”
Rebecca almost slapped him.
Instead, she laughed.
A broken sound.
“You let me spend seven years trying to have a baby while you already had one?”
Max looked ashamed.
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Then what was it like?”
“Sophie threatened to expose everything.”
“Everything?”
Max swallowed.
“There was an accident.”
Ethan listened carefully.
Max explained.
Five years earlier, Sophie had driven drunk after a company party.
A pedestrian was injured.
Max was in the car.
He had supplied alcohol to employees despite a corporate restriction.
Sophie panicked.
Vanessa helped.
“How?” Ethan asked.
Max stared at him.
“She made the police report disappear.”
Rebecca froze.
“You’re saying Vanessa can make police reports disappear?”
“She knew someone in the city attorney’s office.”
Ethan felt cold.
Vanessa’s reach was broader than he understood.
Max continued.
“In exchange, I helped finance Cole Development expansions.”
“And the affair?”
Max laughed bitterly.
“That came later.”
Rebecca whispered:
“You loved her.”
Max looked at Vanessa’s handwriting on the envelope.
“No.”
“Then why?”
Max’s jaw tightened.
“Because she threatened my son.”
Rebecca went still.
“What?”
“She found him. She found the foster family. She said if I stopped helping, she’d expose paternity publicly and make sure Sophie’s old case reopened.”
Ethan understood.
Vanessa did not seduce Max because she needed him.
She made him dependent first.
Then compromised.
Then useful.
Rebecca sat down slowly.
“Where is your son?”
Max shook his head.
“I won’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa doesn’t know the new address.”
A phone rang.
Max looked at the screen.
Vanessa.
He answered on speaker.
“Where are you?”
Max hesitated.
Vanessa’s voice sharpened.
“Max.”
He looked at Ethan.
Then Rebecca.
“At home.”
Silence.
Vanessa said:
“No, you’re not.”
Everyone froze.
May you like
Then she continued:
“Tell Ethan to stop hiding behind the blue storage cabinet.”
