Chapter 6 - THE SHIPYARD
The drive to the shipyard felt like a descent into hell.
Ethan’s grip on the steering wheel was so tight his hands went numb. Beside him on the passenger seat lay the silenced pistol he had taken from Marcus, the hard drive, and Lily’s stuffed rabbit.
He refused to believe Marcus’s lie. Lily was his. He knew it in his bones. But even if she wasn't—even if the impossible were true—it didn't change a damn thing. Nora was his wife. Lily was his daughter. He would tear the city down brick by brick to get them back.
The old shipyard at Pier 4 was a graveyard of rusted shipping containers and towering cranes, abandoned years ago. The sky was the color of bruised iron, the rain turning into a frigid mist off the bay.
Ethan parked the station wagon at the gates and walked in.
He didn't try to sneak. He walked down the center of the cracked asphalt road, the wind whipping his charcoal coat.
A black SUV sat idling near the edge of the pier. The dark water churned violently below the concrete drop-off.
Two men stepped out of the SUV. The same two men from the park.
One of them dragged Nora out of the backseat. Her hands were zip-tied behind her back. She looked battered, a bruise forming on her cheek, but her eyes were defiant.
The second man pulled Lily out. The little girl was crying, shivering in the cold wind.
"Let them go," Ethan yelled over the wind, stopping thirty feet away.
"The drive, Mr. Vance," the lead man demanded. He pressed a gun against Nora’s side.
Ethan reached into his pocket and pulled out the small digital hard drive. He held it up.
"It’s all here," Ethan shouted. "The ledgers. The offshore accounts. Everything David found. Let them walk back to my car, and I'll slide it over."
"Mommy," Lily cried, struggling against the man holding her collar.
"Don't look down, baby," Nora said, her voice shaking. "Look at me. Look at Mommy."
"Throw the drive halfway," the man ordered. "Then the girl goes."
Ethan calculated the distance. If he threw it, the man would have to step away from Nora to retrieve it. That was his window.
"Fine," Ethan said.
He tossed the drive underhand. It skittered across the wet concrete, stopping exactly halfway between them.
The lead man sneered. He shoved Nora toward his partner and walked forward to pick up the drive.
He bent down.
Ethan didn't hesitate.
He drew Marcus’s pistol from his waistband and fired.
The silenced weapon let out a sharp pfft. The bullet struck the lead man in the shoulder. He cried out, dropping the drive and stumbling backward.
The second man panicked. He raised his gun toward Ethan.
Nora didn't wait to be saved. With her hands tied behind her, she threw her entire body weight backward, slamming her skull directly into the second man’s nose.
The man howled, dropping his weapon and grabbing his bleeding face.
"Run, Lily!" Nora screamed.
Lily sprinted toward Ethan. Ethan caught her with one arm, shielding her with his body, and fired two more shots at the men, forcing them to dive behind the SUV for cover.
"Nora, come on!" Ethan yelled.
Nora scrambled toward them. Ethan grabbed her arm, dragging her behind a stack of rusted metal shipping crates just as a barrage of gunfire echoed across the pier, bullets sparking against the steel.
Ethan pulled a pocketknife and quickly sliced the zip-ties binding Nora’s hands.
She gasped, pulling Lily into a desperate embrace.
"Are you hurt?" Ethan asked, checking them both frantically.
"No," Nora sobbed, kissing Lily’s head. "We're okay. We're okay."
"We need to move," Ethan said, peering around the edge of the crate. The two men were advancing slowly, using the SUV for cover.
"Ethan," Nora panted, grabbing his coat. "When they had us in the car... they told me what Marcus said to you in the vault. About David. About Lily."
Ethan looked into her eyes. The terror in them was gone, replaced by a desperate, agonizing vulnerability.
"It was a lie," Ethan said firmly. "I know it was."
Nora’s breath hitched. A tear cut through the dirt on her cheek.
"It wasn't a lie, Ethan."
The world stopped spinning. The sound of the wind, the crashing waves, the footsteps of the armed men—it all faded into total silence.
Ethan stared at her.
"What?" he whispered.
"David couldn't have children," Nora said, crying freely now. "He and his wife tried for years. They were devastated. Before you and I got married... I offered to be their surrogate. I gave them my egg. They used a donor. I carried Lily for them in secret. We were going to announce it when she was born."
Ethan’s mind struggled to process the words.
Surrogate.
"But then David was murdered," Nora choked out. "His wife committed suicide from the grief a week later. And then Marcus tried to kill me."
She looked down at Lily, who was hiding her face in her mother’s chest.
"I was pregnant, Ethan. I was carrying your brother’s child. The only piece of David left in the world. When I realized Marcus was behind it, I knew he would never let David’s heir live. That child would inherit David’s controlling shares of Vance Global."
Nora looked up at Ethan, her soul completely bare.
"I didn't betray you, Ethan. I didn't sleep with your brother. I loved you. I only ever loved you. But I had to run to keep her alive."
Ethan looked at Lily.
She wasn't his biological daughter. She was his niece. The daughter of the brother he loved, carried by the wife he worshipped.
The revelation didn't break Ethan’s heart.
It healed it completely.
"She’s a Vance," Ethan said, his voice thick with emotion. He reached out, resting his hand on Nora’s cheek, his thumb brushing away her tear. "She is ours, Amelia. She has always been ours."
Before they could say another word, a heavy footstep sounded right behind them.
"How touching."
Ethan spun around.
May you like
Marcus stood at the end of the shipping crate. His jaw was bruised, his suit was soaked from the rain, and he held a massive, military-grade shotgun aimed directly at Ethan’s chest.
"Give me the drive, Ethan," Marcus said coldly. "Or you all die right here."
