Chapter 3

Three days passed. Ethan' s men tore the town apart, but they found no trace of me. The residents grew more fearful, their resentment toward the rich man from the city hardening into a silent, simmering rage.

On the fourth day, Ethan returned. This time, he wasn' t alone.

He wheeled Nicole out of the SUV. She was slumped in a wheelchair, an oxygen tube in her nose, her face pale and gaunt. She looked like a dying doll, a masterpiece of manipulation.

Ethan gathered the townspeople in the derelict town square. He stood before them, a king addressing his impoverished subjects.

"I know my wife is here," he announced, his voice echoing off the crumbling brick buildings. "And I know you' re hiding her. I' m prepared to make you an offer."

He gestured to the decaying town around them.

"I will invest in this town. I will rebuild your homes, reopen your businesses, bring jobs back. I will give you a future. All I ask for in return is the location of Jocelyn Clark."

A murmur went through the crowd. The offer was tempting, a lifeline for a community that had been drowning for decades. But they looked at Barney, their moral compass, their guardian of the truth.

Barney stepped forward, his face a canvas of grief. He looked at Ethan, then at Nicole, whose eyes held a flicker of triumphant cruelty.

"You want the truth, Mr. Lester?" Barney said, his voice heavy. "You can' t handle the truth."

He took a deep breath.

"Jocelyn came here five years ago. She was pregnant. She didn' t tell you because she was afraid of you, afraid of what you and your... family would do."

Ethan scoffed. "Pregnant? Impossible."

"She gave birth to a son," Barney continued, his voice cracking. "Matthew. A few weeks later, she was found in the woods. She' d been beaten. Murdered. I buried her myself, in the cemetery up on the hill."

The world seemed to stop. Ethan stared at Barney, his mind refusing to process the words.

"Murdered? That' s absurd. And how could the boy be mine if she died so soon after arriving?" he argued, his arrogance a shield against the encroaching horror.

As he spoke, the memories flooded me, sharp and brutal. I was no longer a spirit watching the present; I was back in the past, reliving my final moments.

The flashback ends. I am back in the town square, tethered to my murderer' s enabler. Ethan is still arguing, still denying, still blind. But the truth is out there now, hanging in the air, waiting for him to finally see it.