Chapter 6 - CLAIRE’S FINAL CONFESSION
I opened Claire’s journal with trembling hands.
The pages near the end were difficult to read.
Her handwriting had weakened as her illness progressed.
One entry had been circled several times.
I must tell Jack the truth about the account.
The next page had been torn out.
Marcus examined the binding.
“Someone removed it carefully.”
Ethan looked toward the letters inside the metal case.
“Maybe she wrote it somewhere else.”
We searched everything.
At the bottom of the case was a sealed letter addressed to Ethan.
He stared at his name.
“Open it,” I said.
He shook his head.
“You should.”
“It belongs to you.”
His fingers trembled as he broke the seal.
Inside was a handwritten letter from Claire.
Ethan read silently at first.
Then tears filled his eyes.
“What does it say?” I asked.
He handed me the letter.
My beautiful boy,
There is something your father does not know.
Before I met him, I worked for a financial charity called the Haven Foundation.
The charity was not helping widows.
It was stealing from them.
When I discovered the truth, I copied their records.
I placed the money they had not yet stolen into a protected account.
That money belongs to the victims.
The silver cup contains the key to the evidence.
I continued reading.
Amanda knows about the account.
She was part of the foundation.
If anything happens to me, do not trust her.
The final line was written in darker ink.
Jack must never blame himself.
I lowered the letter.
All those years, Claire had been trying to expose the same people who were now living inside my house.
Amanda had not entered our lives by accident.
She had come looking for the key.
Detective Reyes made several calls.
Within an hour, federal investigators joined the case.
The bank named in Claire’s note confirmed that the safe-deposit box still existed.
But there was a problem.
It required two forms of authorization.
The brass key.
And Claire’s biometric seal.
“She’s dead,” I said.
The bank manager studied the old documents.
“The seal may have been transferred to her legal heir.”
I looked at Ethan.
“Her son.”
The manager nodded.
Amanda did not need only the key.
She needed Ethan.
That was why she had kept him close.
That was why she had prevented me from seeing what she was doing.
And that was why she had not simply abandoned him.
He was the final piece.
Detective Reyes received a call.
Her expression changed.
“What happened?” I asked.
“The Miami hotel room has been found.”
“Is Margaret there?”
“No.”
“Then who is?”
Reyes looked toward Ethan.
“Sheila.”
“Your mother-in-law was found unconscious beside a burned passport.”
“And Amanda?”
“Gone.”
“Brooke?”
“Gone.”
“Dylan?”
Reyes paused.
“Security footage shows Dylan leaving the hotel with Margaret.”
Ethan stood.
“Dylan took her?”
Reyes turned her phone around.
The footage showed Dylan pushing Margaret in a wheelchair.
But Margaret did not look like a prisoner.
She was holding Dylan’s hand.
And just before they disappeared through the exit, she looked directly into the camera.
May you like
Then she raised a handwritten sign.
DO NOT TRUST THE POLICE.
