Chapter 301: Every Grown Daughter Marries Out

Ethan really did show up at the hospital in person to treat Bella. It was just an ordinary fever and cold, nothing serious, but she’d worn herself down studying too hard, so he came to check on her himself.

When the treatment was done, he still had someone arrange a car to take Ruth back to Harlan Court. He said he had other patients to see at the hospital and didn’t go with them.

He had no wish to drag Ruth and her daughter into this. Some things were best never set in motion; staying clear of them was a blessing in itself.

The next day, the eldest daughter turned up at Sinclair Holdings again. The moment she saw him, tears streamed down her face, and she sobbed, begging her “Uncle” to stand up for her.

Then she launched into a tearful list of everything Claire and Ethan had done wrong. According to her, Claire was crushing Julian Sinclair at every turn to cover up the fact that she’d betrayed him and cheated on him—and at the same time, she was holding her daughter back too. By the time she was done, she had painted Claire as an utterly irredeemable she-devil.

As for Ethan, she dismissed him flatly as a hypocrite, a shameless man with no medical ethics who, all over some romantic rivalry, had deliberately refused to cure Julian and was happy to watch him suffer.

What she wanted from Evan Sinclair was simple: justice. As head of the Sinclair family, he should back her up.

Hearing this, Ethan felt a deep ache inside, but all that showed on his face was a playful smile.

”An outsider like me shouldn’t get involved in the tangled loves and grudges among the four of you,” he said. “But from what you’ve told me, I can already see it’s all their fault. You poor thing.”

”Of course it’s their fault. What could I possibly have done wrong?”

”Julian Sinclair and Claire Lowell planted the seed, and you’re what grew from it. That’s not something you can change. But I’m no judge, either. Even a judge stays out of a family’s private squabbles.”

”I’m Natalie Sinclair. I’m a Sinclair. You can’t just sit on your hands while a Sinclair gets bullied, can you? You’re my uncle. You’re the head of our family.”

”And who do you want me to destroy for you? Your father? Your mother? Or your stepfather?”

”That idiot Ethan Hale, obviously. Do I even need to say it?”

Ethan laughed. “So it’s true what they say. When you can’t keep everybody happy, you sacrifice the kindest one, and then the storm blows over.”

He gave a cold laugh and shook his head. “Still, I can’t do what you ask. I can’t help you. You’ll have to deal with this yourself.”

”Uncle, why won’t you help me? You’re my uncle, and you’re the head of my family. You have to stand behind every Sinclair.”

”Standing behind someone isn’t the same as helping a bully do wrong. A great family should provide for its sons and daughters—but how it provides, and how much, is a different matter entirely. Resources always go to the children who can bring back the biggest return. Take your mother. The reason she favors you most isn’t that you have more of her blood. It’s that you’re more useful than your two younger sisters. By the same logic, as far as my Sinclair family is concerned, I can’t see what use you are.”

He pulled out a personnel file listing the sons, daughters, and descendants of the Sinclair family. Whether from Ambrose Sinclair’s line, Jasper Sinclair’s, Great-Uncle Frederick’s, or any of the others, there were several hundred of them, if not a thousand—young and old, with the good and the bad all mixed together.

”Take a good look,” he said. “Your competition is all in here. If I give you special treatment, how am I supposed to treat the rest? They’re all family. I can’t play favorites too openly, can I?”

”But I’m your niece…”

”Exactly. You’ve hit the nail on the head. You’re a woman, a daughter of the Sinclair family. Do you know what your greatest value is? Making a good match and getting married. My Sinclair family can’t be like your Lowell family, letting a woman call the shots. A whistling woman and a crowing hen never come to any good end—and neither does a family that lets them rule the roost.”

”I’m not getting married! I’ll make something of myself, and I’ll make you see me in a whole new light.” Refusing to accept it, the eldest daughter got up and left.

She wants to destroy me, does she? Ethan laughed coldly to himself. The girl wasn’t just ungrateful—she repaid kindness with hatred. She was already a complete stranger to him.

After thinking it over, he started a video call with his wife. She picked up quickly and appeared on his office screen.

Perfectly at ease, Ethan stood before the wide floor-to-ceiling windows with a golf club in hand, practicing his swing. “Ms. Lowell, your eldest daughter came to see me again just now. She says you don’t want her anymore—that even a mother bear protects her cubs, but you’d throw yours to the wolves. She’s very unhappy with you. So I won’t hold back. This time I intend to have her come home to her roots, take the Sinclair name for good, and be entered in the family register. Are you going to miss her?”

”Evan Sinclair, don’t take this game too far!” his wife said. “Natalie’s last name is Hale. She’s my husband’s child and mine. She’s going through a rebellious phase, but she’ll come around to accepting my husband, and my husband will take her back. Whatever pocket money or little favors you can give her, I can give her too. There’s no need for you to trouble yourself.”

”What I’m offering isn’t a little favor. It’s a fortune. To be frank, my Sinclair family is thriving, and we’ll soon reclaim our former glory. We’re a family of the highest standing. Your daughter would count among our finest sons and daughters. We can give her things you can’t—a marriage alliance with a family on the same level as the Washington circle, for instance.”

”Evan Sinclair, I won’t let you lay a finger on my daughter! Do you hear me?”

”Ha! The problem is, your daughter doesn’t even acknowledge you. I’m giving you a chance. Go work on her properly. If you can’t keep hold of her, then don’t let her come knocking on my family’s door.”

Ethan laughed and hung up, and the corner of his mouth twitched with satisfaction despite himself.

On the other end, his wife was frantic with worry. Evan Sinclair was completely unhinged; there was nothing he wouldn’t dare. He really would marry her daughter off.

Of course, part of the problem was her daughter. She was the one who’d gone to Evan Sinclair in the first place.

Claire had people bring the eldest daughter back to her grandmother’s old house, where she told her that going to Evan Sinclair had been a mistake—he would sell her off.

The eldest daughter shrugged it off. “I already told him I’m not getting married. How’s he supposed to sell me?”

”Wake up,” Claire said. “You want to marry for love, and you also want the Sinclair family’s perks. What makes you think you can have both?”

”The fact that I’m Julian Sinclair’s daughter.”

Claire scoffed. “Do you even know how you came to exist? Didn’t Julian tell you? He stole you! And look at what’s become of him now. What good is his status to you? None at all! You think Evan Sinclair is a good man who’ll treat you well? To him, the only thing you’re worth is that pretty face.”

”Don’t look down on me!” the eldest daughter snapped. She felt she was all grown up and perfectly capable of great things.

”Nat, stop fighting me on this. The rules this world runs on aren’t as simple as you think. Your dad and I protected you too well. You’ve never seen how dangerous and ugly things are out there, so you think the world is a beautiful place. It isn’t. Look at Uncle Clay Lawson’s family. Look at Uncle Gregory Tate’s family. Both of them are ruined, their people scattered or dead. Haven’t you seen that?”

”That’s them, not me! My last name is Sinclair! Claire Lowell, your Lowell family is nothing compared to the Sinclairs. You’re not one of us. You have no idea how glorious my family is—your Lowells aren’t even fit to shine our shoes. How could you ever see what I see from up here? You’ve never looked past your own backyard!”

”You…”

Claire couldn’t take any more. She slapped her daughter across the face.

The eldest daughter didn’t dodge. She took the full force of the blow, and a little blood even showed at the corner of her mouth, but she didn’t make a sound. Instead, she looked at her mother with cold contempt. “Claire Lowell, you’ve always been like this, ever since I was little. When you can’t win an argument, you hit. Evan Sinclair was right—you’re a crowing hen, and you’re finished. If you’ve got the guts, beat me to death right here.”

Meanwhile, Ethan received a message from his wife asking to meet with him—his real self. He didn’t reply.

The marriage alliance wasn’t an empty threat. Several of the hidden dynasties really had sent him invitations, proposing an exchange of marriages.

The young men and women of both families would be brought together to meet. Those who took a liking to each other would be paired off—your daughter marries my son, my daughter marries yours. The family elders could also assign matches themselves.

Ethan didn’t like the practice. But he knew that, from the family’s point of view, it was unavoidable.

Would he marry off his eldest daughter?

Yes, he would.

Once, he never would have. But now she was cold to him, refused to even acknowledge him, and wanted nothing more than to see him dead. If that was how it was, he didn’t want to see her either. Marrying her off somewhere far away would settle things.

Of course, he also knew that Claire, as her mother, would fight it.

As himself, he didn’t want to see his wife, but she tracked down his cover identity instead. She was furious, and the moment they met she tore into him for sticking his nose where it didn’t belong and meddling with her daughter.

Ethan laughed. “Ms. Lowell, you still haven’t woken up, have you? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Your daughter and Dr. Hale are two poisoned cups, and you have to drink from one of them.”

”Even so, that’s my private business. You have no right to interfere.”

”But your daughter’s an adult now. You’ll have to face the fact that she’s going to marry out someday, won’t you? By bringing up the marriage alliance with you and your daughter first, I’m just giving you advance notice.”

With that, Ethan took out a register of marriage prospects—portraits of young men and women sent over by various hidden dynasties. Some were plain and some were beautiful, but all of them were young and came from distinguished families.

”I’ll be blunt with you,” he said. “As long as your daughter insists on calling herself a Sinclair, this isn’t just her business anymore. An exchange marriage is what’s waiting for her. As far as I’m concerned, women don’t count for as much as they do in your Lowell family.”

”Then I’ll make her give up the Sinclair name!”

Claire was disgusted with him. In his world women didn’t count for much—and yet he’d gone and taken five “wives.” If he thought so little of women, why had he collected so many?

Not long after she left, just before the end of the workday, Ethan was intercepted by his eldest daughter, Natalie. She had already slipped out of her grandmother’s house.

”Uncle, why do you want to marry me off?”

”Because that’s the only value you have. Your last name is Sinclair—that’s your good fortune, and your misfortune too. You’re a smart girl. You should be able to work that out.”

Ethan didn’t indulge her. His men moved her aside, and he went back to Dragon Ridge.

Meanwhile, his wife went with her mother to the Quincys to size up their promising young men. She didn’t mince words with the Quincy matriarchs either, proposing a marriage alliance between the Lowells and the Quincys to strengthen their ties. The Quincys could barely contain their delight and hurried to recommend the most capable young men in the family.

On the drive back, Margaret noticed her daughter’s furrowed brow and unsmiling face. She wasn’t especially happy herself. “Claire, why didn’t you tell me about this marriage alliance beforehand? I could barely keep up back there.”

”With the fuss Nat is making, don’t you understand what I’m worried about?” Claire said instead. “The Quincys won’t do. Nat can’t marry into that house.”

”Nat? This is for Nat? She’s not even twenty yet. Isn’t that a little rushed?” Margaret was taken aback. She’d only heard that Evan Sinclair had suddenly proposed marrying off her eldest granddaughter, and she’d assumed it was impossible—the girl had nothing to do with Evan Sinclair, and he had no say in the matter.

”She’s not that young. She’s almost twenty. She won’t study, so marriage is all that’s left. That’s her choice. Mom, what do you think—should we have a young man from the Quincys marry into our family and take the Lowell name?”

”Marry in? So you’ll use the eldest, then. I’d assumed you’d keep Maisie for that someday,” her mother said. After all, Claire had three daughters and no son, so she was bound to keep one of them at home and bring in a husband who’d join the Lowell family. But Claire was still in her prime; there was no reason to hurry.

Then something else occurred to her. “Bringing in a son-in-law is easy enough. The Quincys would jump at it. But what about Ethan? I don’t think he’ll look kindly on Nat, let alone accept a son-in-law marrying into the family.”

Claire sighed. “That’s exactly what’s worrying me. I don’t know how to bring it up with him, even if he probably knows already.”

She also had surrogate babies on the way for Ethan, and a son was bound to come along. Bringing in a son-in-law now would hurt the other two daughters later on.

But it was the only way she could stop Evan Sinclair from targeting her eldest daughter.

”Let Nat pick one herself,” she said. “If she can’t decide, she can draw straws. One way or another, this marriage alliance has to be settled.”

The next day, Ethan got a call from Ivy and came to the Integrative Medicine Center. His eldest daughter, Natalie, had fallen ill and wanted to be admitted—but it was a minor illness being treated like a major one.

”You don’t think getting sick means you won’t have to get married, do you?” Ethan said.

”I’m sick, and you still want me to get married?”

”For children of great families, sons take wives and daughters take husbands. That’s the natural order of things, and you can’t hide from it. Natalie, faking an illness is a very foolish move. Right now all of you are on the marriage list, like goods set out on a shelf. The more outstanding and flawless you are, the better the match they’ll give you. If you’re damaged goods—if you’re sickly—then the match you get will be damaged and sickly too.”

He warned her not to try to be clever, or she’d only end up hurting herself.

Leaving her room, he went to find Julian. Julian had heard about the Sinclair family’s marriage alliances with other families. The eldest daughter had even gone to him, begging him to stop Evan Sinclair. She didn’t want to get married.

Ethan got straight to the point. “Think of your sisters, your aunts, even the widows who married into the family—which Sinclair woman hasn’t had to marry? You can’t keep a grown daughter at home forever. Keep her long enough and all you’ll get is resentment. Don’t you understand that? If every family with a daughter refused to marry her off, where would your wives come from? The Sinclairs have flourished all these years precisely because so many outstanding women married in. How else does a family stay strong and healthy? Only with fresh water flowing in from upstream.”

”Nat is still young. There’s no need to rush.”

”Young? How does she compare to the youngest woman you’ve fooled around with?”

”That’s not the same thing!”

”Enough. You just want your daughter to go find you some allies so you can come back, overthrow me, and take the top spot. But think about it—are you even worthy? Without me, the Sinclair family is nothing but something rotting underground, stuck in its ways and sealed off from the world. I’m bringing it back into the light, letting it breathe fresh air, so it can grow and soar again.”

Ethan didn’t give him a chance to reply. Seeing that Julian’s condition had improved with treatment, he swapped in a rookie intern to handle his follow-up care. He couldn’t let Julian truly recover.

His mother-in-law sent a message to his real number, telling him that his wife had gone to the Quincys to arrange a marriage alliance. He found an opportunity to meet her in person over a meal, and they talked everything through in detail.

Afterward, he had people approach the Quincys to buy up the companies and businesses they were selling. The pitch they gave: the Quincys wanted a marriage alliance with Claire Lowell, so the engagement gifts couldn’t be stingy. Even if they had to sell everything they owned, they had to keep up appearances and throw a grand wedding. And once they were related to Claire by marriage, would they ever be short of money again?

Whether the argument held up or not, the Quincys took some of it to heart and really did start selling off more of their businesses. To create a sense of urgency, Ethan also leaked the news that his wife planned to marry off a daughter, drawing the Lindens, the Walcotts, and other old Easton families into the competition.

His wife was the richest person in Easton, and her daughter was a prize everyone wanted. Naturally, all eyes turned to them. Claire warned Evan Sinclair not to stir the pot and publicly denied the rumors herself, declaring that she had no intention of marrying off her daughter. But the eldest daughter wouldn’t listen to her mother, announcing that whom she married was none of her mother’s business. Nobody believed either of them—if anything, people became even more convinced that a fine match was in the works.

Meanwhile, Ethan kept quietly buying up assets in Easton, building up his own strength.

He waited until his wife’s period had passed. Then, as himself, he went to see her, and the two of them had a warm and very thorough reunion.

Chapter 302: The Daughter Who Doesn’t Care Who Raised Her

When husband and wife finally met, it was, naturally, a long-awaited and passionate reunion.

”Honey, you knew I was looking for you. Why did you keep putting me off?”

Afterward, his wife complained to Ethan. She did feel a little wronged. Ideally, he would just come home, so she could send him off to handle whatever needed doing.

”What’s so important that you need me for it?” Ethan said. “If you can’t solve it yourself, what good is coming to me? All I want now is peace and quiet. Drink some coffee every day, read a few books, and do nothing else. There’s nothing left in life worth chasing.”

”You still have me. Don’t think like that. Come home.”

”I’m not going back. The kids are grown, and they all have minds of their own. They won’t listen to me anymore, and I have no standing to make them—nor do I want to. Claire, stop playing dumb. You know perfectly well.”

She sighed. “Fine, I don’t understand anything. It’s all my fault!” With that, she climbed on top of him and settled there.

Ethan rested his head on his hands and looked up at her. Like this, she was desire itself.

”There’s no need to come to me about business,” he said. “In your world, money solves ninety-nine percent of problems. Whatever it doesn’t solve just needs more money.”

”I don’t have that kind of money anymore. And the problems I’ve got really aren’t the kind money can fix. Ah…”

She was breathing hard. “That bastard Evan Sinclair has set his sights on Nat. He wants to marry her off to trade favors with other families. I need your help with this.”

”And what do you want me to say? Should I talk to Evan Sinclair, or to Nat? Which of them would listen to me? Even if I did talk to them, what good would it do? Claire, Nat is all grown up, and she has exactly your temperament. You should be able to sense what she’s after.”

”I—I don’t know. Something’s wrong with her head. She won’t listen to a word I say.”

”You know. You know all of it.”

Ethan rolled her beneath him and took the lead himself, leaning close to whisper a few soft words in her ear. They left her practically melting; she could barely hold herself together.

She turned over onto her stomach, not daring to look him in the face.

”I’ll talk to Nat,” he said. “Then you’ll have to choose. Either stay out of it entirely and give her your blessing, or don’t go soft on her. When it’s time to be tough, be tough.”

They held each other tight, and the rest of the night was theirs.

…

This time, his wife kept the eldest daughter at the house and didn’t let her go to the hospital again to see Julian Sinclair or Evan Sinclair.

At first, the eldest daughter didn’t think much of it. But after her afternoon nap, when she still wasn’t allowed to leave, she got angry and called her mother to complain at length.

She was still on the phone when she heard the front gate open and saw Ethan walk in.

”Damn it, Claire Lowell! I have to hand it to you—that’s ruthless.”

She understood immediately. Her mother had kept her here because Ethan was coming—and now here he was.

When they came face to face, she put on airs, chin raised haughtily. “What are you doing here? This isn’t your home. You’re not welcome.”

How did we end up enemies? Ethan thought. Aloud, he said, “The Sinclairs say you’re planning to marry someone far away in Washington. Your mother hasn’t put it that bluntly, but that’s what she means too. She asked me to come check on you, so here I am. How old are you, anyway? What’s the rush to get married before you’ve even finished school? Is someone forcing you? Or are you hoping to climb the ladder through your husband’s family? Think it over carefully. If you marry off to Washington, you’ll have no claim on the Hale Group’s assets. Julian Sinclair is useless—he can’t give you a dowry. You’ll have to come begging to me. For the sake of all the years you called me Dad, I’ll give you a share.”

”Who said I’m getting married? I’m not!”

”Not getting married, huh? Then no dowry. Once the chance is gone, it’s gone. Saves me money.” Ethan chuckled. “I hear you’ve even changed your name—Natalie Sinclair now. The Sinclairs are a great house. You’re just a girl; what say do you think you’ll have? If Evan Sinclair tells you to marry and you refuse, you’ll be cut off from the Sinclair family’s resources too. Tsk, tsk. You’ve changed your name, and if the Sinclairs throw you out, you’ll have nowhere to go. Your father doesn’t love you, your mother won’t spoil you. You really are a pitiful thing.”

”Then you’re in for a disappointment! You’d better worry about yourself, Hale. Have you ever stopped to think about how you spent the past twenty years? You’re the pathetic one!”

”Those years? I lived them the same way you came into the world. Actually, now that I’m rid of all of you, I’m free as a bird. These are the happiest days I’ve had in twenty years. Bet you never saw that coming. Losing all of you turned out to be a blessing in disguise.”

”Keep pretending. You hide every day like a rat that can’t stand the light.”

Hearing that he was doing well, she gave a soft snort, her face full of scorn.

”Sure, sure. You’re right. I’m a rat. But I’m free. What about you? Are you free? Claire won’t let you leave, so you can’t go anywhere. At the hospital, if Evan Sinclair won’t let you see that real father of yours, you can’t see him. And if Evan Sinclair decides to marry you off, your mother can’t protect you. Evan Sinclair wants you married off to Washington, your mother wants you married to someone in Easton. Either way, you won’t get what you want.”

Ethan took out a photo. It showed a young man from the Reid family of Washington—a heavyset man who weighed around 176 pounds, stood barely five foot three, and had a full beard.

”Know who this is?” he asked. “The blind date Evan Sinclair picked out for you. He’s coming to Easton the day after tomorrow.”

”No way! I’m not going on any blind date.” She snatched the photo and stomped on it.

Ethan sighed. “Kids who can’t take control of their own fate. Truly pitiful.”

He shook his head and left.

Once he was in the car, he called his wife and told her flatly that he was deeply disappointed. The girl wasn’t his flesh and blood, she wasn’t his family, and he would never set foot in that house again.

”Honey, you—you can’t just wash your hands of this!”

When he hung up on her, she could guess the talk had fallen apart and that their eldest had made him angry.

She had the bodyguards bring the girl to the Hale Group. The moment she saw her, she demanded, “What did you say to your dad? Are you deliberately ignoring what I wanted? I told you to apologize to your father and get him to forgive you—and you were supposed to talk him into coming home. All you had to do was open your mouth and ask him. He’d have swallowed his pride for you. He’d have come back for sure.”

”He isn’t my dad. My dad is Julian Sinclair.”

”You said that to him? Are you an idiot?” Claire’s head throbbed. Her daughter only had to mention half of Julian Sinclair’s name to set Ethan off.

”I told the truth! You know that perfectly well. He’s waiting for me to beg him? He can dream on. What’s he even worth?” She almost added again that her last name was Sinclair—that she belonged to the Sinclair family.

The Sinclair family, no less!

Claire swallowed her anger and tried to stay as calm as she could. “Natalie Hale, even if you don’t share his blood, he still raised you for almost twenty years. Surely you know what people say: anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad. You may owe a debt to the man who gave you life, but you owe a bigger one to the man who raised you, and that’s a debt you pay back in this lifetime.”

”Claire Lowell, if I weren’t your own flesh and blood, would you love me? Would you? If I did something wrong, would you protect me no matter what?”

”No, I wouldn’t.”

”Then that settles it! I’m not Ethan Hale’s, so that’s that. Nothing you say will change it, and nothing he does will either.”

Ethan had a fair idea of how that conversation would go. It was just as he’d said: the two of them were the same kind of person. His eldest daughter would walk the same road his wife had walked—only faster, because she was even hungrier for success.

At this point, she had to succeed. Otherwise, she’d always feel small in front of Ethan.

Too bad she still didn’t know that Evan Sinclair, the man who had her in his grip, was actually Ethan himself.

Since her falling-out with Claire, her money had been under her mother’s control. And once Ethan decided she was going on a blind date, her accounts as Natalie Sinclair had been restricted too. Whenever she left the house, she was either followed by Claire’s people or blocked by Evan Sinclair’s. She had no freedom at all.

The appointed day arrived, and she was brought before Evan Sinclair. When she saw the photo of that heavyset Sean Reid lying on his desk, her scalp prickled.

Sure enough, Evan Sinclair got straight to it. “I can see you understand that a smart girl knows which side her bread is buttered on, so I won’t waste words. Go have a meal with him. Build some goodwill.”

She refused at once. “I’m not going. I already told you, I’m not getting married.”

”You have two options. Either you go and eat that meal properly for me, or tomorrow morning you take your birth father and get out of Easton. Anyone who isn’t part of my Sinclair family, or who won’t serve me, I don’t want to see ever again.”

Ethan said nothing further and had her taken out. Before long, one of his trusted men reported that she had agreed to go.

So that’s all you are after all, Natalie. Just like Claire—faced with real gain, all you’ve got left is a stubborn mouth.

Still, he sent Grace along to keep an eye on her. Grace reported back that the girl had been very quiet. She hadn’t lost her temper, and she hadn’t sabotaged the date.

That night, he also heard from Sean Reid’s parents. They were thrilled with his eldest daughter—so thrilled they wanted to push the marriage alliance forward as soon as possible. Even an engagement tomorrow would be fine with them.

Natalie was cast from the same mold as Claire. No one her age was prettier, and she came to the blind date with Claire’s fortune behind her. Who wouldn’t be taken with her?

Ethan sneered. Then he switched back to his real identity and, late that night, paid a visit to the hotel where Sean Reid’s parents were staying.

In high spirits after the evening’s success, the couple had rekindled a long-neglected romance in their room.

Ethan went in, pulled the covers up over them properly, and then woke them. Even so, he gave them quite a fright.

”Don’t panic,” he said evenly. “I sent you a message saying I’d pay you a visit. When you didn’t reply, I came in person. I just have a few questions. Answer honestly, and we’ll part on good terms. You’re Lily Reid’s uncle and aunt—don’t make me forget that.” He waited for them to calm down a little.

The woman burrowed under the covers, not daring to show her face.

”Please step out first,” the man said. “We can set a time and place to talk.”

”No time like the present. Right now—I ask, you answer. If you’re not honest, I’ll throw you both into the Westbrook River.”

His voice turned cold. “I’m looking into Lily’s death. I want to know the truth about how she died. Why did she die?”

”Lily died in a car accident. I don’t know anything more than you do.”

”You don’t know?”

”All we know is that she died in a car accident. Is there something more to it?”

”So you know nothing at all. Then there’s no reason to keep you alive.” Ethan cleared his throat, and his men came in from outside carrying burlap sacks.

”Ethan Hale, don’t do anything rash! I don’t know, but if there really is something behind it, somebody will. I’ll go back and ask around for you.”

”Fair enough. But only the two of you are going back. Your son stays in Easton.”

Ethan didn’t push them any further. He really did leave.

The couple looked at each other and wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads. It all felt a little unreal. Had Ethan Hale actually believed them?

They immediately tried to reach Grace. No one answered, but after they’d finished packing, she called them back.

They complained right away. They were staying in a hotel, and someone had still broken into their room. They didn’t feel the least bit safe, and they wanted to go back to Washington immediately.

Grace just said she’d send people right away to move them somewhere safer and would book them an early flight home the next day.

She hung up before they could bring up their son. When they met in person, they still vented about Ethan Hale, but Grace showed little interest. Evan Sinclair had given her explicit orders: make no promises and stay out of it. So she simply brushed them off.

The next day, the couple flew home. Sean had been put up at Dragon Ridge, where he’d be safe.

What they hadn’t expected was that Evan Sinclair would arrange for Sean to have another meal with the eldest daughter—and then have him tied up. They had no choice but to turn to Evan Sinclair for help, while also reporting the situation to the head of the Reid family’s main line.

Evan Sinclair duly “rescued” Sean. Then he sent the eldest daughter to have yet another meal with him. This time, Ethan tipped off his wife in advance. Her people showed up, gave Sean a thorough dressing-down, told him to get lost back to Washington at once, and even had him driven to the airport.

Halfway there, Ethan had people intercept the car and rough Sean up until he was “seriously injured.” Sean ended up in the hospital, unable to leave Easton.

After all that back-and-forth, Sean was thoroughly cowed. He played dead in his hospital bed and talked to no one but the doctors. Beyond that, you could have threatened him with anything and he still wouldn’t have opened his mouth. He didn’t even dare glance at the eldest daughter when she came to visit.

His parents were driven to despair. Only then did they see it clearly: this was a trap Ethan Hale had dug. He’d lured them to Easton and was now holding their son hostage, with the truth about Lily’s death as the ransom.

All they could do was hope Ethan wouldn’t lose his head and kill the boy, and hope the family could give him some kind of answer. Meanwhile, they no longer had the luxury of caring about much else. They found people, pulled strings, posted rewards, and reopened the investigation into how Lily had died.

They also made frequent trips to the Warren family to ask for Lily’s belongings, planning to send them to Ethan first to keep him calm.

When Celeste Warren heard about it, she snorted to herself. Ethan Hale, you bastard. You’re a thousand miles away and you can still push us around. Impressive. But aren’t you afraid of making enemies of us? Sooner or later, we’ll take you down.

In Easton, meanwhile, Evan Sinclair used the affair to put pressure on his wife. He had the Reids of the Washington circle use official channels to recommend that Easton launch an audit of one of her construction companies.

That company was busy with construction on the Pine Hill project. If it was audited, work might very well have to stop.

His wife had no choice but to send in a PR team, hoping to get the audit called off—or, failing that, at least delayed.

She wasn’t stupid, though. In the negotiations over the audit, she caught sight of Evan Sinclair’s hand. Angry, she came to his door and confronted him. “Evan Sinclair, making my daughter go on a blind date already offended me badly. Now you’re playing dirty tricks with the Pine Hill project. Do you know what you’re doing?”

Ethan simply brought up old debts. He produced a stack of documents detailing the groundwork Julian Sinclair and his sister had laid for the Pine Hill project and the stake they’d held in it.

”I’m only doing what my duty requires,” he said lightly. “Ms. Lowell, I’ve discovered you’ve grown into a very fat rat, forever stealing grain from my Sinclair family’s barn. Everything you have today, you got by bleeding my family dry. Now I need money. So, sorry—you’ll have to pay it back.”

Chapter 303: My Wife Wants to Team Up with Outsiders Against Me

The two sides couldn’t reach an agreement and parted on bad terms.

His wife left Ethan a message telling him to come out and take care of Evan Sinclair so she could get out of this crisis. Ethan ignored it. Take care of myself? Dream on.

That evening, her people reported that everyone she’d planted in the Integrative Medicine Center and Easton General had been moved off their posts by Evan Sinclair on one pretext or another and were being reassigned to remote rural clinics and small-town hospitals.

The people she’d bought off inside Sinclair Holdings over the past while had all ended up in the hospital with injuries, too. Afraid that minor ailments would be blown up into major ones, they were all hoping she’d arrange for them to be treated in New York, Boston, or Chicago.

”So that bastard Evan Sinclair has finally bared his fangs! He’s nothing but a mad dog. He has no friends—he’ll tear apart anyone who gets close.”

She could tell Evan Sinclair had tightened his grip on the Sinclair family even further. Things inside the family had settled down, and next, the Sinclairs would start expanding.

She was the richest person in Easton and controlled enormous resources. Even she would become a target of Evan Sinclair’s greed.

She would not back down.

Meanwhile, the Ethan she’d been searching for showed up at the Integrative Medicine Center. He had Sean Reid moved out of his room, loaded him into an ambulance, and headed for the airport.

When they were almost there, he saw that Sean still had his eyes squeezed shut. He tossed the man’s driver’s license and papers onto his face. “Still faking it? Your plane leaves for Washington in less than an hour. Get up, get dressed, and get your butt through security.”

Sean opened his eyes. He was still in the ambulance, but Ethan was the only one with him. The IV line had been pulled out of his hand at some point, and the oxygen tube in his nose was no longer running.

There were clothes and a driver’s license, and his phone showed a flight booking confirmation. Everything was just as Ethan had said.

”Natalie isn’t right for you. Stop dreaming. You’d never be able to handle her. You’re better off finding a woman who knows her place.”

”Thank you, sir… thank you for the advice. I’ll do as you say.”

”Don’t bother trying to brush me off—I don’t believe you anyway. I’m sending you back so you can look into how your aunt Lily died.”

”I’ll do as you say.” You don’t trust me, so why let me go? Sean thought. Once I’m back in Washington, I’m not listening to a word you say.

But Ethan gave him another injection—nothing but saline, as a bluff. “The truth is, Evan Sinclair’s people slipped you a slow-acting poison while you were in the hospital. It’ll kick in again after you get home, and within six months you’ll be dead without anyone knowing why. What I just gave you is a temporary suppressant. All it can do is hold the poison back when it flares up. In a week or two, once it wears off, the toxin will slowly eat away at your body.”

”A slow poison?”

”It doesn’t have any particular symptoms. After you get back, you’ll still eat well, sleep fine, and chase women—none of that will change. But keep an eye out, and in ten days or two weeks you’ll notice you’re starting to lose weight. You might suddenly drop ten or twenty pounds.”

”Sudden weight loss?”

”You could call it that. But losing weight won’t kill you right away. Who knows—you might even look better for it.” Ethan chuckled.

A chill ran down Sean’s spine. Sudden, drastic weight loss was a sign of serious illness—cancer, for instance.

He started begging. “Sir, please, save me.”

”You want something from me, so I’ll want a few things from you in return.”

Ethan dropped him off at the airport entrance and headed back.

The moment the heavyset young man got to Washington, he went straight to a hospital for a full checkup. They found nothing wrong, but he still couldn’t relax. Ethan Hale was a famous doctor, after all, and the Sinclair Order was no charity. To them, crushing him would be as easy as crushing an ant.

He talked with his parents for a long time. Then he went crying to the family elders of his grandparents’ generation, begging them to back him up.

But the Sinclair family was deeply entrenched in Easton—and, more importantly, it was a powerful hidden dynasty that outranked the Reids in strength. Even among the hidden dynasties of the Washington circle, the Sinclairs now stood out: they had a cleanup crew and were still recruiting and building up their forces. With its fangs bared, the family could take on any single dynasty and hold its own.

On the surface, though, the Washington circle was never just one or two families. They banded together—in twos and threes, or blocs of three to five—and presented a united front against outsiders.

So that very night, several elders sat down over coffee and put the question of dealing with Easton on the table.

Old Mrs. Warren was there too. As always, she cared only about Ethan and insisted that no one harm him. Afterward, she let Ethan know that the Washington circle was about to move against Easton again and invited him to come to Washington for a while to stay out of the line of fire.

Ethan declined. For now, all he wanted was peace and quiet.

Instead, he told her one thing: the Sinclair Order was preparing to send Ambrose Sinclair to Washington for a checkup.

”Ambrose Sinclair is willing to show his face? He actually dares to come to Washington?” Old Mrs. Warren was stunned.

”The Sinclair family was already big in Easton, and now it’s even bigger. If the family is going to step into the open, Ambrose Sinclair can’t keep hiding. Ma’am, if that old geezer comes to Washington, would any of you dare touch him? Give me a straight answer.”

”Once, we would have. But now that the Sinclair family has produced an Evan Sinclair, we’re not so sure. If we touched Ambrose Sinclair, we’d walk right into Evan Sinclair’s trap.”

”Exactly. Evan Sinclair wants someone else to do his dirty work. He’s pushing that old geezer out into the open to see which of you dares lay a hand on him.”

”The younger generation really is something to be reckoned with.”

Old Mrs. Warren sighed. Finally, she told Ethan that people from the Washington circle would be approaching his wife. They hoped she’d act as their inside agent in Easton and, using Natalie’s marriage as a pretext, join them against Evan Sinclair. Once again, she invited him to Washington to ride out the storm.

But Ethan was Evan Sinclair. Now that he knew, he had room to prepare.

He waited until the Washington circle’s people had finished their talks with his wife. That night, he went back to her house.

His wife was surprised to see him. After they made love, she nestled against his chest and pummeled it with soft little fists. “You’re so heartless. I’ve been dealing with urgent problems these past two days. Why didn’t you come back to help when I needed you?”

”I’m the one who sent Sean Reid home. He won’t bother Nat again. That gives you time to talk her into marrying your cousin’s son instead—keep the good fortune in the family. That’s about all I can do on that front.”

”That’s not what I mean. Evan Sinclair is going after our Pine Hill project. He wants to go after the Hale Group too.”

”Evan Sinclair? Can’t he barely protect himself right now? How is he still a threat to me? I heard the Washington circle has sent people to Easton again, and this time they’re going after Evan Sinclair. You want a piece of the action too? Claire, don’t do anything stupid. If you help the Washington circle take down Evan Sinclair, once they’ve swallowed up the Sinclair family, they’ll turn around and come after you.”

”I have an agreement with them, and they’ve given me guarantees. They won’t make a move on the Lowell family or the Hale Group.”

”And you trust them?”

”There are reasons. Mostly you—because of you, they don’t dare use deadly force against me. Honey, I want you to stop working with Evan Sinclair. He’s a lunatic, a despicable, shameless little man. You have no idea—he once had Sophie and the others bear children for him. He even tried to make me play by his dirty rules. That bastard—I’ve wanted to get rid of him for ages.”

She kept working on him. “Evan Sinclair is reckless and tyrannical. Greed is in his nature, and he’ll stop at nothing. With a man like that, unless we bow to him, he won’t leave us an inch of room to survive. The Washington circle is different. Once they’ve dealt with Evan Sinclair, they’ll stabilize things as fast as possible. On paper we’d share control of Easton with them, but in reality we’d be the hosts. We’d call the shots.”

Ethan said nothing. Inside, though, his thoughts ran along a completely different track. As “Evan Sinclair,” he was letting his own “evil” side loose—and even he didn’t know how vicious he might become once that side took over.

Seeing his expression, his wife said, “Honey, you have to listen to me. Otherwise I’m not letting you leave.”

She thinks she’s in control again?

Ethan ignored her threat completely. He wasn’t the man he used to be. Never mind the cleanup specialists he’d trained as Evan Sinclair—even his own people could break through her blockade and get him out.

So the next day, he strolled out as boldly as ever.

Back in his identity as Evan Sinclair, he held nothing back this time. He showed his strength, tracked down the Washington circle’s people who’d slipped into Easton, and came down on them like a thunderbolt.

Last year, when the Washington circle had come to Easton, they’d used every dirty trick in the book against Clay Lawson and the others—arson, poison, and more. Now all of it was paid back in kind. Those who still had some standing in their Washington families ended up in the hospital. The hired thugs—with broken bones, internal injuries, concussions, or poisoned into comas—were flown home first on chartered jets.

Ethan’s revenge followed close behind. On the very night the Washington families collected their wounded, fires broke out and poison was slipped into their family estates. Some family heads even had their cars rammed.

The Sinclair cleanup crew repaid them an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It was terrifying.

The Washington circle was furious—and exhausted by the constant harassment. In the end, they split into two camps: one wanted to keep sending people to Easton for revenge, the other wanted to sue for peace. The two sides argued endlessly and couldn’t reach a consensus.

Finally, the authorities stepped in and punished the Washington circle and the Sinclair family equally, and only then did both sides back off.

Seizing the moment, Ethan arranged for Ambrose Sinclair to escort the hospitalized Washington circle members back to Washington.

He didn’t go with them himself. Instead, he made one high-profile appearance after another in Easton—investment promotion meetings, the ribbon-cutting for a major bridge, a groundbreaking at a construction site, charity events at nursing homes and children’s homes, and more.

One morning, after a wild night with Ethan, his wife suddenly fell ill. She was vomiting for no reason, running hot and cold, and felt dazed and foggy. She went to the hospital for a checkup, but there was nothing wrong with her organs. If the doctors had to name something, it was that her nervous system was a little out of balance and she needed rest to recover. Since she couldn’t work, Ethan went to the Group to take charge.

When he came home that day and saw the hostile look in her eyes, he knew exactly why. She’d found out he had injected more capital. Because she was sick, she’d automatically lost her chance to put in more capital herself, and with the shares transferred to him by his mother-in-law and others, he was now the Hale Group’s largest shareholder.

Next, he was already plotting to sell off the Group’s projects and cash out.

His wife was very weak. “Why did you mess with my company?”

”Isn’t it our company? Wasn’t I already the second-largest shareholder? Don’t tell me the agreement you gave me was like those two fake divorce decrees—just for show, just to toy with me?”

”This is my life’s work. You can’t take it from me just because I’m sick. You can’t do this.”

”I didn’t take anything. Just the opposite—I put more money in. The Group’s assets are even bigger now. In my hands, it’s growing stronger.”

”Honey, is this really how you feel about me?”

”Of course. My feelings are as genuine as they come.”

Ethan gave her a massage, and she drifted into a deep sleep. Three days later, as Evan Sinclair, he bought the Pine Hill project from the Group. Once that was done, he also fired the Hale Group’s finance staff and put his own people in.

A few days later, his wife recovered and couldn’t sit still any longer. The moment she walked into the Group, the company felt like a stranger’s.

There was more money in the accounts, but that didn’t make her happy. The Group had sold the Pine Hill project—its flagship project for the next couple of years—and Ethan had simply sold it off, just like that.

Since it was already done, she had to find another way.

Once she regained control of the company, she fired Ethan’s finance people and brought back the team she knew.

Then she started thinking about how to become the largest shareholder again, which meant getting Ethan to agree to transfer shares to her. Copying his move and pushing through a one-sided capital increase was out—he’d blocked every such avenue. While she was sick, he’d called more than one shareholders’ meeting and written a long list of powers for the largest shareholder into the company bylaws, most notably a single-vote veto.

He’s gotten good at this. He’s learned how to find people to help him.

What she didn’t know was that Ethan had Tori Fairfax and others advising him, along with the Sinclair family’s network and resources. Even if he wasn’t much of a businessman himself, he knew how to take advice.

As the saying goes, a wise man listens to good counsel.

When she proposed a capital increase, Ethan vetoed it single-handedly, leaving her thoroughly deflated.

She had built the Group from nothing. She was its founder—and now she was just an employee.

For now, all she could do was secure her footing and plan her next move slowly. Luckily, once she went back to “working for a paycheck,” Ethan pulled another vanishing act, and she got a rare taste of freedom.

Otherwise, with him hovering around, she’d never get anything done.

In fact, Ethan’s other self, Evan Sinclair, was extremely busy.

When Ambrose Sinclair arrived in Washington, he received a very warm welcome. At his age, he was the most senior figure wherever he went and could lean on his seniority all he liked. Then the authorities, citing “the strain of travel and the need for proper rest,” kept him at a care facility in Washington—a polite form of detention.

His plans were going smoothly, but Ethan wasn’t happy. The investigation into Lily Reid’s death still hadn’t made any progress.

”Looks like I’ll have to go to Washington and look into it myself.”

He knew the Reid and Warren families were the key to the investigation, but both were keeping their mouths firmly shut. Either there really was nothing to hide, or the two families had formed an alliance.

His wife was busy trying to win back the Hale Group, and everyone else’s attention was on Ambrose Sinclair. It was a workable time for him to slip into Washington.

But he’d need someone on the inside.

Using his real number, he called Celeste Warren. She was able to talk, so he got straight to the point. “Any progress?”

”None. We’ve checked everywhere we can and found nothing suspicious. Ethan, can we please stop stirring this up and just let her rest in peace?” If Celeste investigated openly, the old lady would freeze her out immediately, and her whole situation would be turned upside down.

”You’re all useless. All this time and not a single lead. Looks like I’ll have to look into it myself.”

”You want to come in person? You’ll drag me down with you. Are you crazy? Come to Washington if you want, but don’t come looking for me. I won’t help you, and I’m definitely not meeting you.”

”This is for your own good. Think about it. Have they found out who was behind slipping cholera to your old lady? No, right? They only found the person who did it, and he ran off long ago—nobody even knows where he’s hiding. And Lily was run down and killed. If the two are connected, do you really think it’s that simple? You’re getting close to the old lady. You’re in serious danger.”

”Ethan, don’t try to scare me.” Celeste frowned. She could sense the dark currents stirring within the family, but she wasn’t about to get pulled in. She was afraid of dying.

”Whether what I’m saying is true or not, it has to be investigated properly. We can’t just muddle through. Your investigation has no teeth, so I have no choice but to handle it myself.”

”Then what’s your plan? You attract trouble like a magnet—you’re a walking disaster. If you come to Washington, people will be watching you, and you won’t get anything done. And sneaking in quietly is next to impossible.”

”I’m not that stupid. Get me a new identity—a distant relative of yours, back from studying abroad or something. The fewer people who notice, the better.”

”What name?”

”Something low-key. Safety first. I’ll give you a few options, and you pick one: Carl Jebson. Dexter Crane. Crane Desmond…”

Chapter 304: My Wife Isn’t That Rotten After All

Ethan was also getting ready to leave Easton. Among other things, he made Julian Sinclair fall critically ill, had him moved into intensive care, and restricted his visitors.

Travel between Washington and Easton was easy enough, but he still prepared as thoroughly as he could so no one could raid his home while he was away.

He had no interest in the Sinclair family’s wealth. He could take Ivy and the others and leave anytime; whoever wanted to fight over the rest was welcome to it.

In the middle of all this, he got a call from Ivy: the eldest daughter was at the hospital again. She hadn’t been allowed to see Julian, and now she wanted to transfer him to another hospital.

Foolish girl. Ethan went to the hospital and let her see Julian. When she came out, he handed her the unpaid bill. “Pay this, and you can move him wherever you like. It’s between you and your father, after all.”

”I—I don’t have any money.” The eldest daughter was thoroughly practical: she’d acknowledge a father, but paying for him was out of the question. She was also afraid of Evan Sinclair now. He’d grown more and more powerful, rising to heights she could never reach. He could decide the fates of the Sinclair family’s sons and daughters as he pleased—especially the daughters of a great dynasty.

In fact, Evan Sinclair had put her through the Sinclair family’s rigorous education for its daughters, drilling the family rules into her and all but brainwashing her. As long as she refused to give up her identity as a Sinclair daughter, she had to follow the family’s rules.

To Ethan’s surprise, she really had taken it all in, and her results were excellent. Clearly, she’d rather claim that good-for-nothing Julian Sinclair as her father than make peace with Claire—let alone acknowledge Ethan again.

You can’t hold on to someone who wants to leave, Ethan told himself. She wasn’t his flesh and blood; in the end, she just wasn’t. And even if she had been, if she chose to turn her back on him, there would be nothing he could do about it.

”Uncle, I can’t sleep at night anymore. Am I sick? You have to help me,” she said.

”Oh? You’re not feeling well?” Ethan’s heart softened. She looked lively and radiant, her skin fair and her face lovely—nothing like someone who was sick. Still, he had her hold out her wrist and read her pulse. “Your pulse is fine. You’re not sick. What are you worrying about? Why can’t you sleep?”

”I—I’m flat broke.”

Ethan laughed. “You’ve got a very rich inner life. You just can’t stop thinking about the money of yours that ended up with me. I’ll give it back, but not now. On the day you marry, I’ll count the money you gave me as part of your dowry and return it then.”

The point of pushing her toward marriage was to toughen her up, give her some hard knocks, and temper her character. It also let him needle Julian and Claire at the same time. He was killing several birds with one stone.

”Uncle, I’m still young. I’m in no hurry to get married. I want to focus on my career first.”

”Are you sure?” Ethan smiled. The marriage ploy had already been used, but a new idea came to him in a flash.

”There’s an Antarctic research project,” he said. “How about I put you in charge of it?”

”Antarctica? Somewhere that cold? No way! I’d freeze solid, and you’d never see me again!” She turned it down flat. If she took this project—if she dared go to Antarctica today—tomorrow Evan Sinclair would send her to the Arctic, and after that, the Amazon. If he could post her far from Easton, then nothing in Easton would have anything to do with her anymore.

She wasn’t a fool.

”Short-sighted as a mole! What am I supposed to expect from you? You can’t get anything done, but you’re great at ruining things!” Ethan pretended to fly into a rage and sent her away.

That day, his real number received an unexpected message from Tori Fairfax. The Vance family wanted to use her to set up a meeting with him—the real him.

After weighing it briefly, he had a rough idea of what they wanted: for him to take out himself. Evan Sinclair was squeezing the Vance family hard, and they were feeling it. But they didn’t have anyone who could get into Easton and eliminate Evan Sinclair, so their only hope was to win Ethan Hale over to do it for them.

That was how the game worked.

He was curious to see what they’d put on the table, so he agreed.

That night, as himself, he went to the dock, boarded a yacht, and headed out onto the river to meet them downstream.

The person who came was a woman in her thirties. Her looks were ordinary, but her large eyes were bright and expressive, and with her fine figure and expensive clothes, she had quite a presence.

Her name was Sheryl Vance.

Once introductions were made, Tori went to the wheelhouse and left the two of them to talk.

Ethan got straight to it. “Whatever kind of cooperation you have in mind, spell it out—your demands, your terms. If we can work together, great. If not, we can still be friends.”

”Have you heard of the Sinclair family’s Heaven’s Gate project?”

”Of course. It was a longevity project the Sinclair Patriarch pushed forward—walk through Heaven’s Gate and live forever. For now, you could call it a success. The Sinclair elders keep getting older but refuse to die, and the children they’ve produced through surrogacy keep coming, one batch after another. The Sinclair family’s illegitimate sons now number a thousand or more, not just the hundreds. And your Vance family’s Evelyn Vance played no small part in that project.”

”My great-aunt, Evelyn Vance, was forced into it. When she met Jasper Sinclair, she happened to be sick and injured. He took care of her, then played with her feelings, and before she knew it she’d been dragged onto his pirate ship…”

”No need to slap an ‘innocent victim’ label on her. I don’t care. And you’re still not getting to the point. Why bring this up?”

”Lately the Vance family has been under enormous pressure from Evan Sinclair. We set up a dedicated risk team to handle our business in Easton and compile intelligence on the Sinclair family, and we found a notebook my great-aunt left behind. One entry is very interesting. It’s about your wife, Claire Lowell.”

”Something about Peter Vance?” Ethan asked. His wife had come into Evelyn Vance’s orbit as a prospective daughter-in-law; back then, Julian Sinclair had approached her under the false name Peter Vance.

”So you already knew. I underestimated you, Ethan. In that case, there’s even more room for us to work together.” Seeing him hold out his hand for the notebook, Sheryl passed him the relevant photocopies.

Even so, what he read made him uneasy. Using her position as a school doctor, Evelyn Vance had gotten close to his wife, collected a great deal of physiological data on her, and run biochemical analyses on her blood, DNA, and more. And it wasn’t only his wife—there were other young women too.

The entries broke off abruptly at the point where Evelyn Vance was preparing to harvest eggs from his wife. Nothing was recorded after that.

He wasn’t pleased. “So this is your bait? What’s it going to take to get the full version? Do I have to kill Evan Sinclair?”

”That’s everything in the diary about Claire Lowell. Ethan, I’m not asking you to kill anyone. I want to be your friend. This material should make it easier for you to divorce Claire.”

”Help me divorce Claire?”

”Isn’t that what’s been troubling you?” Sheryl watched his face. She didn’t see any of the pain or helplessness she’d expected at the mention of his wife. Those feelings were gone.

”Divorce is a problem for me, sure. But my life can’t revolve around divorce. Or rather—you have no idea what kind of life I’m living now.”

Sheryl felt a little awkward.

”If anything,” Ethan went on, “these diaries make me hate your Vance family even more. You’re the ones I should be taking out. Evelyn Vance ran this project.”

”That’s a misunderstanding. My great-aunt was forced. Inside the Sinclair family, she was just a pawn in someone else’s hand. The Sinclair family is the real culprit.”

”Claire isn’t that rotten. Next time you want to work with me, don’t use this to play on my sympathy. Let’s be more direct—start with interests and end with interests.”

Sheryl realized Ethan was nothing like the man described in her files, which meant the conclusions of their intelligence people—even the ones drawn from Tori—were all wrong. She couldn’t get a read on him. If she kept talking, she’d only end up on the back foot.

She excused herself to use the restroom, went to the wheelhouse to take over from Tori, and gave her a quick rundown of her impressions.

Tori wasn’t especially surprised. If Ethan’s trust were that easy to win, her own dealings with him wouldn’t have been so difficult.

She went out to join Ethan for coffee. “Sheryl may be my friend, but that has nothing to do with you and me. Don’t let our friendship make you go against your own principles. Whatever you decide won’t affect our relationship.”

”What can the Vance family give me that would make me take a risk that big for them? They haven’t figured that out. They haven’t figured out what I want.”

Ethan chatted with Tori a little longer, then went ashore and left.

Tori returned to the wheelhouse. “Ethan’s gone back,” she told Sheryl. “Right now he doesn’t want anything or need anything. It’s going to be very hard to move him—unless you can find a way in through something that really matters to him.”

”I thought helping him get a divorce would give him what he wanted, and then I could work with him and use him to get rid of Evan Sinclair. Now I can see I was being naive.”

”I’ve pretty much figured it out too. Ethan doesn’t want a divorce, and he doesn’t hate Claire all that much. Twenty years of feelings are enough to make him go soft when it really counts.”

”But after being deceived for so long—twenty years—how can he keep giving in? Anyone else in his place would divorce her. Even if he doesn’t take revenge, he should do something.”

”I talked this over with Grandma Fairfax. Her view was: how do you fill the emptiness? Ethan and Claire have more than a decade of feelings between them. If he takes her out of his heart, what does he fill that hole with?”

Sheryl felt she almost understood—but not quite.

”In theory,” Tori continued, “when love is gone, it can be replaced by another love—or by family, friendship, ambition, that sort of thing. Ethan’s parents died young. He has no siblings and no children of his own, so he has almost no family to speak of. My friendship with him doesn’t come close to what he had with Claire. As for ambition—Claire and the others drove him out of the hospital. His medical skills are superb, and he still has a physician’s kind, devoted heart, but he no longer has a platform. My grandmother and I came to the same conclusion: he’ll hold on to his feelings for Claire. As long as there’s nothing to replace her, he won’t divorce her lightly. And with Claire refusing to divorce, he’s left with a bit of hope that lets him compromise, so he stays tied to her.”

”Then let him find a new love. He’s a man ruled by his feelings. Feelings are the only way to handle him.”

”You? What makes you think you could make him fall for you? You’re not as beautiful as Claire, and you have even less in common with him. He won’t trust you, and he won’t have anything to do with you.” Tori shook her head. She didn’t think much of Sheryl’s chances.

”What about you, then? You could step in and win him over.”

”I’m a married woman, and you want me to take up with him? What a terrible idea!” Tori knew Ethan was fond of her, but it hadn’t crossed into romantic feelings. Even if she wanted it—even if she got divorced—she suspected Ethan still wouldn’t go for it.

”I don’t see much of a future for you and Wendell Chandler either. There’s a big, handsome man like Ethan Hale right here. If you let him slip away, don’t blame me for swooping in.”

”Don’t play with fire. Ethan isn’t like the men you’ve dealt with before. You can’t control him. You’d do better to think about how to deal with Evan Sinclair. If the Vance family can’t beat the Sinclair family, you’ll end up as Evan Sinclair’s next meal.”

”I’d never give in to that ugly man! Don’t even mention him. Just hearing his name gives me goosebumps—look.” Sheryl rubbed her arm, a shiver of disgust running through her whole body.

Tori laughed. “Then we won’t talk about him. We should head back too.”

Evan Sinclair’s strength, and the Sinclair family’s, had taken even Tori by surprise. But what interested her more was how Ethan managed to live so freely inside a Sinclair family under Evan Sinclair’s control. She planned to pay Evan Sinclair a visit when the time was right.

Once ashore, Ethan let the river breeze wash over him, smoked a cigarette, and only then left.

He went to his wife’s house. She let him in and made love to him—tenderly, passionately—but she hardly said a word.

Afterward, instead of curling up in his arms and lingering as she used to, she turned her back to him and ignored him.

Ethan gave her backside a hard slap. When all she did was yelp and keep ignoring him, he put out a foot and pushed her off the bed.

”Hale! I’m going to fight you to the death!”

She climbed back up, straddled him, and wrapped her hands around his throat, torn between love and hate. “I married you and gave you a peaceful life, and you went behind my back and sold off my money-making project. Now you kick me out of bed? Are you tired of living? I’ll kill you with my own hands first!”

There was no real strength in her grip. “The money’s in my hands,” Ethan said. “Don’t tell me you’re feeling insecure? Afraid I’ll dump you and you’ll end up with no husband and no fortune?”

”You think you wouldn’t? You heartless man! I know exactly what you’re thinking. You can’t wait to get rid of me.”

”Then will you divorce me?”

”In your dreams! I’ve told you before—I, Claire Lowell, don’t do divorce. Widowhood, though, I can handle. You’re a bad man!”

Her words sparked an idea. What if this identity of his met with an accident and died, and he went on living as his stand-in, Evan Sinclair? What would his wife do then?

So he asked, “If I really died, would you remarry?”

”I would.”

”Then it’s settled. I’ll go die, and you can remarry.” Ethan rolled her off him and started to get up.

But she pounced and pinned him down again. “You’re not allowed to die without my permission! If you die, I’ll die too! And when we meet again down in hell, you’ll definitely regret it. You’ll never rest in peace.”

”You’re the one going to hell. Think how many people I’ve saved, how many good deeds I’ve done. I’m going to heaven.”

”Then I’ll go to heaven too. I’ll slip St. Peter a fat check and take the VIP lane through the pearly gates!”

”You’d con the saints themselves. The more you talk, the more ridiculous you get. Claire, I’ve got you figured out. You’ve got some nerve.”

”As long as my husband doesn’t leave me, I don’t care how shameless I look. Right now, all I care about is my husband.”

”Just don’t regret it.”

”I won’t! And the same goes for you, honey. You’re scheming against me now, but when you realize I’m the only one in this world who loves you this much, don’t regret hurting me. I really am making sacrifices for you.”

”Name one or two. Let me see these sacrifices of yours.”

She nearly blurted out that she’d already had Viv act as a surrogate, but she held the words back at the last moment. “I’m not telling. I’ll show you instead.”

She kissed him, seeking his love, and this time she was even more devoted…

As the passion swelled, Ethan found himself a little lost in it too. He had been watching his wife closely lately. She hadn’t flown into a rage over him making her “sick” and wrecking the Group. She’d simply been using her own methods to win back, step by step, what was rightfully hers. He’d studied her moves. If he didn’t step in and truly take charge of the Hale Group, before long she’d have hollowed him out into a general with no army.

And through all of this, she hadn’t been playing any games with other men.

Maybe she isn’t so rotten after all.

Chapter 305: My Wife’s Love and the Meaning of Life

Early in the morning, Ethan left his wife’s house and went back to his own place. He didn’t switch identities right away—not because he’d lost his touch, but because he felt strangely hollow.

It had something to do with his married life, but that wasn’t all of it. He hadn’t poured all his energy into his wife. He was past forty; he could aim for quality, but he could no longer force quantity.

He’d held back after just once, saving his strength for the day’s work. His stand-in, Evan Sinclair, had more and more to do, and it was draining him. He had to cover every angle, or he might never bounce back.

He was weary at heart.

Was being with his wife just about sex?

He couldn’t accept that. He still wanted more—her love, for one thing.

And what was he doing all this for?

What did her love even mean to him?

He even found himself wondering what the point of his life was.

He didn’t know why these thoughts had suddenly come over him. He felt his life had no real meaning.

But he didn’t think he was depressed, either.

In the middle of these rambling thoughts, Old Mrs. Warren called him directly.

”I’ve made another appointment to see Ambrose Sinclair,” she said. “I’ll have time to talk with him alone. Is there anything you’d like me to ask? If possible, I can video-call you so you can talk to him yourself. My guess is he wants to use me to get you to come to Washington and treat him.”

That old bastard still wants to make a comeback. Ethan naturally refused, but he gave a different reason. “I had a dream last night. Lily was covered in blood from head to toe. She said she’d died wronged. When I asked her how, she just smiled. I don’t know what it means. My head’s a mess right now.”

Old Mrs. Warren sighed. “I know how you felt about Lily. She’s been gone so long, and you still can’t forget her. If she knows, wherever she is now, I’m sure it comforts her. But listen to me, Ethan. Let her go. Don’t disturb her rest. That’s what’s best for her.”

”When I said I wanted to go to Washington to visit her grave, you told me it wasn’t appropriate. For the sake of her good name, I didn’t go. Now I suspect there was something shady about her death—that she was wronged—and once again you tell me to let it go and not dig up the past. Is there some truth you have to keep from me?”

”Ethan, you’re overthinking this.”

”I hope so. But even if you told me the truth—assuming there is one—it wouldn’t change things between us. In Easton, I’ve treated plenty of people who had grudges against me. They’re all still alive and well, even if they don’t acknowledge what they owe my medicine.”

”I really have nothing to hide from you. If anything, there are plenty of things I’d rather support you on.”

Ethan chatted a little longer, then hung up. He was more convinced than ever that Old Mrs. Warren was keeping things from him too—things that might have led to Lily Reid’s death, or at least were connected to it.

He had to go to Washington, both to find out the truth about how Lily died and to visit her grave.

He switched back to his Evan Sinclair identity and went to Sinclair Holdings. Rosalind messaged him there: Tessa Marsh had arrived at the pier. If he agreed, she’d come by to pay him a visit.

What does that little tramp want?

After thinking it over, he agreed.

But when Rosalind brought Tessa to his office, she went in first and left Tessa waiting outside.

”What is it?” Ethan asked. “Any special instructions?”

”You—you can’t take Tessa Marsh as your Number Six. You already have plenty of wives. If you take another, the pressure on me will be enormous.” Rosalind said it bluntly, nipping the idea in the bud.

Ethan laughed. “Oh? And which of your eyes saw me thinking about taking another woman?”

”Both of them.”

”Honestly, Roz, I had no such intention. But now that you mention it, I think it’s an excellent idea.” He gave her nose a flick.

”You—well, I can’t stop you. Then agree to one request of mine first. I want to meet the legendary Ethan Hale and talk to him.”

”Oh? You want to see Ethan Hale? Why?” Ethan was a little puzzled. He remembered that she’d said the same thing up on the mountain, that she wanted to meet his real self. He hadn’t expected her to bring it up again.

”About detoxing. I want his opinion. His medical skills are better than your entire medical lineage put together.”

”If you want to see Ethan Hale, as long as you can set up a meeting, go right ahead. And yet you’re using it as a bargaining chip with me. You’re far too good to me.”

”As long as you know it.” Rosalind laughed. She let him get a little handsy, but just as things were about to get serious, she slipped away and went to bring Tessa in.

Tessa said she wanted to talk with Evan Sinclair alone and sent Rosalind out.

”If you have something to say, say it,” Evan Sinclair said. “I’d be curious to hear it. A while back, your Marsh family joined forces with others to try to swallow up my Sinclair family. What excuse are you going to give me for that?”

”That’s hardly the Marsh family’s fault. Ethan Hale and his people put everyone up to it. When everyone’s guilty, nobody can be blamed. Evan, you wouldn’t single out little old me, would you?”

As she spoke, she took out a box holding a rare, lustrous black pearl. “Just a small gift on our first meeting. I hope you’ll accept it, Evan.”

”’When everyone’s guilty, nobody can be blamed’—well said! And ‘Evan’—that one warms my heart. You may be young, but you know exactly where to aim.” Ethan glanced at the pearl. “Accepting a gift ties a man’s hands. Whatever you want, name it. If I can help, I will.”

”I want to meet Ethan Hale and talk with him. Right now, the only person in Easton who can find him is you, Evan. If I want to see him, I need your okay.”

”Easton belongs to my Sinclair family now. I do know where Ethan Hale is. He can refuse to see anyone else and snub whoever he likes, but he still has to show me a little respect. Finding the right person to go through means the problem’s half solved already. You’re very clever. Planning to scheme with him behind my back and then come after me?”

”You’re joking, Evan. How would I dare? I’d still like to leave Easton alive.”

”I’m not joking. I’ve heard quite a few people say they want to get rid of me. They say I’m the root of all Easton’s problems—take care of me, and Easton’s problems are solved.”

”I’m not like them. I’d never think that way. You’re so easy to talk to, Evan. Working with you would definitely benefit us both.”

”Go to this address. It’s a place I set up for him. I’ll have a word with him; he should come by.” Ethan gave her the address of his residence in the gated neighborhood for officials.

He didn’t make things difficult for Tessa herself. But he had the cleanup crew track down the people she’d left behind in the state next door and put every one of them out of action for good.

He would never trust a woman like Tessa Marsh. She needed to understand that he wouldn’t tolerate being tested.

At the house, when Tessa realized what was going on, she tried to leave, but Ethan’s people stopped her.

Ethan didn’t go to see her right away. Instead, he sent his wife.

His wife hadn’t known Tessa was in Easton, and she was surprised to see her. “Did my husband catch you?”

”Evan Sinclair has me under house arrest. He said I’d be waiting here for Ethan Hale—I never expected to end up with you instead.” Tessa was a little surprised, but she became even more convinced that this was one of Ethan’s places.

Claire had a fair idea why Ethan had sent her—to feel Tessa out. “What did you come to Easton for? To have my husband treat you?”

”Before I came, I wanted to feel out the relationship between Ethan Hale and Evan Sinclair—I was hoping to use Ethan’s methods to poison Evan Sinclair. But now they’re in it together, so obviously I can’t bring that up. I came to apologize to Ethan. I don’t know if he’ll forgive me.”

”And if my husband said he’d forgive you after you spent one night with him,” Claire asked, “would you sleep with him?”

”I’d be willing.” Tessa could hear that she was being tested, so she turned the question around. “Would you allow it?”

”Of course. He wants it and you’re willing—one dares to ask and the other dares to give. There’s no need for me to play the villain. I’d be happy to help you both get what you want.”

Tessa laughed, feeling that Claire was looking down on her.

Claire laughed too—but an unsavory idea had come to her. She could have Tessa act as a surrogate for her as well, keep her locked up, and then pin the whole thing on Ethan and Evan Sinclair.

Ethan was in no hurry to see Tessa. First, he kept his appointment with Rosalind.

Rosalind had dressed with care and looked pure and enchanting. When she saw Ethan, she couldn’t help looking him up and down and comparing him to Evan Sinclair. Her conclusion: if only Evan Sinclair were as handsome as Ethan Hale, then even if Evan wouldn’t sleep with her, she’d sleep with him herself.

Even half as handsome would do.

They began with the usual pleasantries. Ethan played his part flawlessly, and Rosalind didn’t suspect a thing. But he could see something in her eyes.

This little tramp is just like Claire—she can’t stay in her place. Ethan felt utterly helpless. Luckily, Evan Sinclair was also him. Otherwise, if he put himself in Evan’s shoes, he’d feel betrayed.

He understood this much now: it wasn’t that women never cheated. If the temptation was strong enough, a woman would stray.

When the meal was over, he set down his fork. “Evan Sinclair mentioned you want to quit drugs…”

”Don’t listen to his nonsense. He’ll tell anyone anything—what a big mouth! Okay, I do have a bit of a habit. It started as self-protection. I didn’t want my dad drawing my blood or taking my bone marrow, so I had no choice but to turn myself into damaged goods. Evan will never understand that. He only cares about results. But you’re different. You understand me, don’t you?” She was already annoyed with Evan Sinclair. How could he call her an addict? Did he want to strip her of all dignity?

”So that’s how it is,” Ethan said. “But you seem to be doing fine. Maybe you enjoy the high more than you think. Why quit? Why go looking for suffering?”

”I want to be normal! You must know I have the means now. You’re the best doctor in Easton. You can do it, can’t you?”

”Evan Sinclair told me he’d like you to stay just as you are—carefree and happy every day.”

”He’s wrong. I want to be normal.” Rosalind frowned. What Evan meant was that he didn’t want her to get better, so he could keep controlling her with her “rations.” When they’d first struck their deal, she’d been willing to go along with that. But she hadn’t expected Evan Sinclair to rise so fast, topple her father, and seize control of the Sinclair family. She felt she could do the same. For the past few days, she’d been nursing an idea: if she brought down Evan Sinclair, everything he had would naturally fall to her, and she would be head of the Sinclair family.

Everything the Sinclair family has should have been mine in the first place.

Before Evan changed his name, he was a Hart. He’s an outsider by blood. By rights, he has no claim to anything the Sinclair family owns. Even now, he’s just riding on my name. She felt she deserved more respect.

Complaining about this and that, over and over—looks like you’re itching to make trouble. Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he was in no hurry to deal with her. “In that case, let’s get you off the poison—I mean, the drugs. It’ll hurt some along the way, but you seem pretty confident, so you should be fine.”

Rosalind nodded. “I’ll definitely be fine.”

She had him walk her through the method and felt she could handle it, but she still asked, “How bad does the pain get?”

”About as bad as eating raw bitter melon or drinking dandelion root tea—that kind of bitterness. If you can get through that without throwing up, you’ll be fine.”

”Hold on.”

Rosalind had someone bring a bitter melon from the kitchen and made Ethan eat some first.

When he chewed it without so much as a wince, she tried a bite herself. It was very bitter, but she could stand it, and she didn’t feel sick. Her confidence soared.

”Dr. Hale, if Evan asks about our meeting, just tell him I consulted you about quitting drugs. Don’t tell him anything else. And please don’t repeat the unflattering things I said about him, either.”

”Why not? Shouldn’t husband and wife trust each other and not keep secrets?”

”It’s not like that. I think even married couples should keep a little privacy. It keeps some mystery alive. Evan has plenty of secrets he doesn’t tell me, either. Dr. Hale, I don’t mean any harm. I just want to keep our marriage fresh.”

”No problem. I know what to say and what not to say.”

Before she left, Rosalind gave him a hug. The moment their bodies touched, she went a little stiff, her head a little fuzzy—and then she pressed even closer.

If only he could take Evan’s place. How wonderful that would be.

An idea took shape in her mind: push Evan Sinclair out of the picture, get Ethan Hale to divorce Claire Lowell, and marry him herself. Even if they couldn’t actually marry, she still wanted to keep him by her side, for her own use.

She had no idea she was playing with her life.

They parted. Ethan watched her car disappear into the distance, and a cold, ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

”Restless little tramp. You think you’re really somebody now?”

At the same time, he felt a little relieved. Having two identities let him see all the more clearly how the same person could put on two different performances for two different people.

It was easy for one person to pull off—one face in front of you, another behind your back.

He changed back into his double’s appearance and returned to Dragon Ridge at the usual time.

In the fruit bowl at home, alongside the usual fruit, he found a plate of bitter melon, and in a cup beside it, dandelion root tea was steeping. Only then did he realize that the taste of bitter melon had lingered in his mouth ever since his meal with Rosalind.

Such a small detail, and I forgot to cover it up!

He went over, picked up a slice of bitter melon, chewed a few times, then spat it out. “What’s with the bitter melon? Changed your taste?”

He knew perfectly well what was going on; he just wanted to see how Rosalind would answer.

Sure enough, she didn’t “disappoint” him.

”I saw it on a health show,” she said. “It’s a superfood—it helps with blood sugar. And the dandelion root tea next to it is a natural detox. It’s good for you.”

”Health tips? Interesting. The people who really live long—like your dad—never talk about staying healthy, and they still live to a hundred and twenty. Meanwhile, plenty of self-proclaimed experts who go on and on about health drop dead in their thirties and forties.”

”That’s not a fair comparison. You know better than anyone why my dad has lived to a hundred and twenty. Who else could match him? If you don’t like the bitterness, don’t eat it.” Rosalind put the bitter melon away and brought him some fresh imported cherries instead.

Ethan sat down. “Did Ethan Hale say he could help you quit?”

”He can. But I’m not going to rush it f