Chapter 10 - Samantha
The address led to a motel near the highway.
Police arrived two minutes before us.
Daniel forced me to stay in the SUV.
For once, I listened.
I watched officers rush upstairs.
Room 218.
The door was open.
A chair lay in the walkway.
My heart hammered.
Then Samantha appeared.
Alive.
A female officer guided her outside.
Blood ran from a cut above her eyebrow.
She was crying.
I opened the SUV door.
Daniel grabbed my arm.
“Claire.”
“I’m going.”
Samantha saw me.
Her face crumpled.
“I’m sorry.”
I stopped three feet away.
“For which part?”
She looked down.
“All of it.”
I wanted to hate her.
I did hate her.
But right then she looked smaller than she ever had at Margaret’s table.
“What happened?”
“Someone came through the bathroom window.”
“Ethan?”
“I didn’t see his face.”
Police found no one.
Samantha agreed to go to the station.
Before leaving, she gave Rachel a key.
“What is this?”
“A safe-deposit box.”
“At which bank?”
“First National.”
“What’s inside?”
“Everything Ethan gave me to hide.”
I stared at her.
“You helped him.”
“Yes.”
“At what?”
“Moving money.”
“Forging documents?”
She nodded.
My anger came back hard.
“You knew.”
“I knew about the money.”
“You knew he married me for my trust?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you know?”
“After your second anniversary.”
“And you stayed with him.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She laughed bitterly.
“Because I spent so long being the secret woman that I started believing becoming the public woman would make it worth something.”
I said nothing.
She continued.
“I kept thinking he’d leave you.”
“And then I got pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“You hated me.”
“I envied you.”
“That’s not better.”
“I know.”
At the bank, police opened the safe-deposit box with Samantha’s consent.
Inside were account records.
Fake invoices.
Copies of my signature.
Photographs.
And a burner phone.
Rachel turned it on.
Messages loaded.
Many were between Ethan and Margaret.
M: Claire signs whatever you put in front of her if you say it’s for the baby.
E: Stop talking about her like she’s stupid.
M: Then stop acting sentimental.
Another.
E: I said no accident. We find another way.
M: There is no other way if she changes the guardian.
Another.
E: I’m done.
M: You were never strong enough.
Then a message sent the day of the Sunday lunch.
M: Bring Samantha. Claire needs to understand her place.
E: This is childish.
M: Be there.
My chest tightened.
Ethan had been cruel.
Weak.
Dishonest.
But he had been fighting Margaret.
Too late.
Far too late.
Still, the messages mattered.
Then we found a voicemail.
Margaret’s voice.
“Your wife is not going to give away what your father died trying to recover.”
Ethan replied, “Howard is alive.”
My breath stopped.
Daniel turned.
“What?”
The recording continued.
Margaret said, “He is dead to us.”
Ethan answered, “He called me yesterday.”
Rachel stared at Daniel.
“Howard Blake is alive?”
Daniel shook his head.
“He disappeared fifteen years ago.”
We searched the safe-deposit box again.
A passport.
Howard Blake.
Recent issue date.
A Nevada address.
Daniel immediately called investigators.
My phone rang.
Ethan.
Everyone froze.
I answered.
“Where are you?”
His voice sounded exhausted.
“Claire.”
“Did you attack Samantha?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
“I need to see you.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“Talk.”
He started crying.
I had heard Ethan angry.
Cold.
Manipulative.
Defensive.
I had never heard him cry like that.
“My mother lied to me my whole life.”
“You mean Margaret.”
“Yes.”
“What did you find?”
“Howard.”
My skin prickled.
“You found him?”
“He found me.”
Daniel moved closer.
Ethan continued.
“He told me everything.”
“Where are you?”
“At the old Mercer plant.”
Daniel whispered, “No.”
I looked at him.
The Mercer textile plant had been abandoned for twenty years.
Ethan said, “Claire, Margaret is here.”
My blood went cold.
“She has Howard.”
“What?”
“She knows he talked to me.”
A crash sounded.
Ethan shouted.
Then Margaret’s voice came through the phone.
May you like
“You should have stayed at lunch, Claire.”
The call ended.
