“What?”
“A letter.”
Ethan stared.
“For who?”
Luis’s answer was almost inaudible.
“You.”
Luis reached into his pocket and removed a folded envelope.
Six months old.
Creased.
Stained.
Ethan recognized the handwriting before he touched it.
ETHAN.
His hands shook.
He opened it.
The rooftop vanished around him.
Daniel’s words were short.
Ethan read silently at first.
Then his lips stopped moving.
Natalie whispered, “What does it say?”
Ethan looked at Charles.
Then Blake.
Then his mother’s name glowing on the phone screen.
He read aloud.
“Ethan, if you’re reading this, I was right about Harrington.”
Charles stared.
“Mom finally told me the truth.”
Maya began sobbing through the speaker.
“Charles is our biological father.”
Ethan swallowed.
Then reached the final paragraph.
His expression changed.
“What?” Blake asked.
Ethan read it again.
“No.”
“What?”
Ethan looked at his mother.
“Mom.”
Maya stopped crying.
“There’s something else.”
Silence.
Ethan read:
“But Ethan, Charles isn’t your father.”
The rooftop became completely still.
Blake whispered, “What?”
Ethan’s voice shook as he continued.
“Mom made me promise not to tell you unless there was no other choice.”
Maya whispered, “Daniel…”
Ethan kept reading.
“We’re brothers because Mom raised us as brothers. But we don’t have the same father.”
Ethan stared at the paper.
Charles looked almost as confused as everyone else.
Then Maya spoke.
“I was already pregnant when Charles found me after I left.”
Ethan whispered, “Pregnant with me?”
“Yes.”
“Who was my father?”
She began crying again.
“A man who helped me escape.”
Charles suddenly looked toward Ross.
Not Ethan.
Not Blake.
Ross.
And Ethan saw Calvin Ross go white.
No.
Ethan stared at him.
Ross shook his head slowly.
Maya whispered:
“Calvin.”
Ethan felt the air leave his lungs.
Calvin Ross covered his face.
Blake whispered, “This cannot be real.”
Maya continued.
“Calvin worked for Charles’s first construction company. He found me after Charles hurt me. He helped me leave. For a short time, we were together.”
Ethan stared at Ross.
The corrupt inspector.
The man who had taken bribes.
The man who had helped conceal the defects that ultimately killed Daniel.
His biological father.
Ross began sobbing.
“I didn’t know.”
Ethan’s eyes burned.
“You didn’t know what?”
“That you were mine.”
“You took money from the man who terrorized my mother.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You falsified the inspection that killed my brother.”
Ross’s face collapsed.
“I know.”
Ethan stepped toward him.
Ross didn’t move.
“I have spent six months trying to find the man responsible for Daniel’s death.”
His voice cracked.
“And every road led to you.”
Ross nodded through tears.
“I know.”
Ethan’s fist tightened.
Then he saw Daniel’s letter again.
There was one final line beneath the fold.
He opened it completely.
“Whatever you discover, Ethan, don’t become them.”
His fist slowly opened.
Charles watched him.
Blake watched him.
Ross stood before him waiting for punishment.
Ethan folded the letter.
“No.”
Ross blinked.
Ethan stepped away.
“I’m not giving any of you what you deserve.”
Charles almost smiled.
Then Ethan finished.
“The courts can do that.”
Sirens rose from the street below.
Charles turned toward the sound.
Blake stared toward the elevator.
Ross closed his eyes.
Natalie looked at Ethan.
“You called the police?”
Ethan shook his head.
“No.”
Luis raised his hand.
“I did.”
The elevator doors opened.
Detectives stepped onto the rooftop.
Behind them came two state investigators and a representative from the district attorney’s office.
Charles Harrington looked around at the people surrounding him.
The guests.
