Chapter 3 - The Ghost's Gift
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By three o'clock the following morning, the hospital floor had settled into a quiet hum. Thomas Sterling sat in a chair beside my bed, reviewing legal documents under the soft glow of a reading lamp, while Lily and Noah slept peacefully in their double bassinet.
"How are you holding up, Clara?" Thomas asked gently, setting his gold pen down.
"Every time I close my eyes, I hear my father's voice," I admitted, clutching Ethan’s silver wedding ring on a chain around my neck. "I keep thinking Ethan is going to walk through that door..."
"Ethan knew what your family was capable of," Thomas said. He pulled a small black USB drive from his briefcase and handed it to me. "He recorded this ten days before the accident. He wanted me to give it to you after the babies were born."
With shaking hands, I plugged the drive into the hospital tablet on my tray table.
Ethan’s face appeared on the screen. He was sitting in his home office, wearing his favorite navy sweater. His dark eyes were full of warmth, but his expression was dead serious.
"Clara, my love," Ethan’s voice rasped through the speaker, making tears spill down my cheeks. "If you are watching this, it means I am no longer there to hold your hand. I am so sorry I couldn't stay to see our twins born."
He took a deep breath on the recording, leaning closer to the camera.
"I know your father and Mark will come after you the moment I'm gone. They think my business assets and our family estate are vulnerable. What they don't know is that I transferred our entire net worth into an irrevocable private trust for you, Lily, and Noah. They cannot touch a single dollar."
Ethan paused, a small, courageous smile touching his lips.
"I also hired Logan," Ethan added. "He's outside your door right now."
As if on cue, the door opened quietly. A tall, broad-shouldered man with Ethan’s piercing green eyes stepped into the room. It was Logan Walker—Ethan’s younger brother, a former military contractor who had spent six years overseas.
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"Hey, Clara," Logan said softly, his voice full of deep emotion. "Ethan asked me to come home. Nobody touches you or these babies ever again."
I looked at Logan, then back at the tablet screen where Ethan was blowing a kiss to the camera. Even from beyond the grave, my husband had built an unbreakable fortress around us.
