Chapter 8 - Unit 417
“Claire, down!”
Daniel shoved me behind the storage unit wall.
A loud crack echoed.
Not a gunshot.
Metal striking metal.
Someone had thrown a crowbar.
Security rushed the hallway.
I heard running.
A door slammed.
Then silence.
Rachel turned on her phone flashlight.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Daniel grabbed my shoulders.
“The baby?”
“She’s moving.”
His relief was immediate.
One security officer returned.
“He got away through the emergency exit.”
“Camera?”
“Covered.”
Daniel swore under his breath.
Rachel pointed at the laptop.
“This is why.”
We packed everything.
Nobody spoke until we were inside the SUV.
Then I opened my mother’s letter.
My darling girl,
If you are reading this, Ethan has already tried to take what belongs to you.
I hope I am wrong.
But I have learned that love can make good people ignore bad facts.
I did it too.
I wanted to believe Ethan loved you because you loved him.
Then I started following the money.
My eyes blurred.
Daniel sat beside me.
I kept reading.
Ethan’s company was nearly bankrupt before your wedding.
Samantha helped him hide the debt.
Three months after your wedding, the company received its first major loan.
The collateral was listed as future Mercer trust access.
I looked at Rachel.
“Can someone borrow money against an inheritance they don’t control?”
“Not legally.”
The letter continued.
Someone inside the trust gave Ethan information he should never have had.
Do not assume Margaret is the smartest person involved.
I stopped.
“Someone inside the trust.”
Daniel frowned.
“The trustees.”
“How many?”
“Originally three.”
“Who?”
“Me. Your mother’s attorney, Peter Walsh. And a financial adviser named Howard Blake.”
“Which one helped Ethan?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel opened the laptop.
Password protected.
I looked at the framed wedding photo.
On the back, below the first sentence, my mother had written three numbers.
“My birthday.”
Rachel tried it.
Nothing.
I thought.
“Her wedding anniversary.”
Daniel said, “November twenty-first.”
The laptop unlocked.
Folders filled the screen.
BANKS.
HAMPTON.
SAMANTHA.
TRUST.
MARGARET.
Then one folder labeled BABY.
My blood ran cold.
Rachel opened it.
Inside were medical articles.
Trust documents.
Emails.
One email had been sent from Ethan to Howard Blake eighteen months earlier.
If Claire gives birth before 35, I become the surviving guardian if anything happens to her. Correct?
Howard replied:
Correct, assuming the child is yours and no guardian amendment is filed.
I felt sick.
Another email.
Ethan:
What qualifies as incapacity?
Howard:
Do not put questions like that in writing.
Daniel slammed his hand against the seat.
Rachel opened another file.
A scanned invoice from a private fertility clinic.
Patient: Samantha Reed.
Procedure: embryo preservation.
Date: two years ago.
I stared at it.
“What does Samantha freezing embryos have to do with me?”
Rachel searched further.
Then she found a genetic testing invoice.
Two names had been redacted.
But one line remained visible:
PATERNITY MATCH: 99.9997%.
Daniel frowned.
“Whose paternity?”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A woman whispered.
“Claire?”
“Who is this?”
“Samantha.”
Daniel reached for the phone.
I shook my head.
Samantha continued.
“You need to listen to me.”
“Start talking.”
“Ethan is not where the police think he is.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“He left his attorney’s office.”
“Why are you calling me?”
“Because Margaret is blaming me.”
“For what?”
“For everything.”
“You were sleeping with my husband.”
“I know.”
Her voice cracked.
“But I wasn’t part of what happened to your mother.”
I said nothing.
She continued.
“And I didn’t know what Ethan planned for your baby until last week.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“What plan?”
Samantha started crying.
“He was never waiting for your daughter to be born.”
A chill crawled up my spine.
“What does that mean?”
“He was waiting for the DNA test.”
Daniel mouthed, Speaker.
I put it on speaker.
Samantha whispered, “Claire, Ethan doesn’t think that baby is his.”
The SUV went silent.
I stared at my stomach.
“That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because Margaret convinced him you had an affair.”
“With who?”
Samantha’s answer came quietly.
“Daniel.”
I almost dropped the phone.
“That’s disgusting. He’s my uncle.”
“I know that now.”
Daniel’s face became murderous.
Samantha continued quickly.
“But Margaret showed Ethan altered records. She told him Daniel wasn’t your mother’s biological brother.”
Daniel whispered, “What?”
Samantha said, “The DNA test in that laptop isn’t about your baby.”
I looked at the screen.
“Then whose test is it?”
Samantha inhaled.
“Ethan’s.”
May you like
My heart stopped.
“And Margaret isn’t his mother.”
