Names and Lies
287 Words
Ethan barely slept. The anonymous messages, the car, the photograph—all of it circled his thoughts until dawn. By morning he’d made up his mind.
He called his father.
“Ethan?” Charles Vale’s voice carried the authority of decades in boardrooms. “I thought we agreed you’d stay out of headlines.”
“I’m fine, Dad. I just need to ask—does the name Victor Halden mean anything to you?”
A pause. Too long.
“Where did you hear that?”
“So it’s true,” Ethan said. “He worked for Vale Industries.”
“That was years ago. He was dismissed for misconduct. Why are you—”
“Because he’s here. At Hamilton. And he’s after someone I care about.”
“Then leave her alone,” Charles snapped. “Do you understand me? Stay away from that girl.”
The line went dead.
Ethan sat in silence, phone still against his ear.
Stay away from that girl.
He looked out the window. On the far side of the quad, Lila was crossing the lawn, her hair catching the morning light.
He knew he should listen. But something inside him rebelled.
If his father wanted distance, there had to be a reason—and Ethan intended to find it.
That night he broke into the university archives to access donor records, tracing back the mysterious scholarship that had brought Lila to Hamilton.
His stomach turned when he saw the funding source.
Vale Industries Education Trust.
***In the darkness of the archive room, the security monitor flickered—showing a tall man in a black coat watching Ethan from the hallway, silver watch gleaming as the camera feed cut to static.
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