Chapter 13 - CLARA’S INHERITANCE
Clara laughed because the alternative was screaming.
“That’s impossible.”
The agent showed her the documents.
A trust had been established seventeen years earlier.
Beneficiary: Clara Elizabeth Reed.
Helen sat down.
“Oh God.”
Clara turned.
“You knew?”
Helen shook her head.
“No.”
Dominic read the paperwork.
“My father created this.”
Evelyn studied the signature.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“That isn’t your father’s signature.”
Dominic stared.
“Whose?”
Evelyn pointed at the witness line.
“Your mother’s.”
Dominic’s mother had died when he was nineteen.
Clara frowned.
“Why would your mother leave money to me?”
Helen suddenly began crying.
Clara stared.
“Mom.”
Helen looked at Dominic.
Then at Clara.
“There’s something I never told you.”
Clara’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Your father wasn’t the man you grew up believing he was.”
Clara stepped back.
“Mom.”
Helen whispered, “Your biological father was Daniel Reed.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Helen shook her head.
“Daniel adopted you.”
Clara felt the room tilt.
“Then who was my father?”
Helen looked at Dominic.
Dominic’s expression changed.
“No.”
Helen said, “Your father was Anthony Vale.”
Dominic’s uncle.
The younger brother of his father.
Clara stared at Dominic.
That made her—
“Family,” Evelyn whispered.
Clara sat down.
Her entire life rearranged itself in seconds.
Anthony Vale had been killed in a boating accident before Clara was born.
Helen had been pregnant.
The Vale family wanted no scandal.
Dominic’s mother secretly created the trust to protect Anthony’s child.
Margaret somehow discovered the money years later.
That was why Helen had been monitored.
It was never only Evelyn’s evidence.
Margaret wanted Clara’s inheritance too.
Dominic leaned back.
“So Clara is my cousin.”
Noah smiled.
“Family.”
Everyone looked at him.
Clara laughed through tears.
“Yes.”
She touched his hair.
“Apparently.”
But the documents contained one more detail.
The trust could only be released after proof of criminal interference with the beneficiary.
Margaret’s crimes activated it automatically.
Clara looked at the amount again.
Twelve million dollars.
Enough to change Tyler’s life.
Her mother’s life.
Everything.
Dominic said, “Take it.”
Clara looked at him.
“It’s yours.”
For the first time in years, she imagined her mother without debt.
Tyler without insurance forms deciding whether he deserved treatment.
Herself without working until her hands shook.
Then Noah whispered, “Clara?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t leave.”
And Clara realized money had solved one problem while creating another.
May you like
Because she no longer needed the job.
But Noah still needed her.
