Chapter 6: Clara’s Truth
My father looked away.
That was enough.
“What happened to Clara?” I asked.
Ethan answered before he could.
“His family accused her of stealing company documents. They made sure no office in the city would hire her again.”
My father whispered, “I didn’t know until later.”
“But when you knew,” Ethan said, “you still did nothing.”
My father had no answer.
There it was again.
The sin of silence.
Not the loud kind of cruelty people can point at.
The quiet kind that lets others suffer because telling the truth is inconvenient.
Ethan placed another paper on the table.
“Before my mother died, she wrote everything down. Names. Dates. Who signed the false statement. Who paid the lawyer.”
My father stared at the paper.
“If this becomes public…”
“Your merger collapses,” Ethan said. “Your friends leave. Your image burns.”
My father looked at me then.
And for the first time, I was not afraid of disappointing him.
I was afraid of becoming him.
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