Chapter 4 - THE ROOM SABRINA LOCKED
Police remained at the mansion until after midnight.
Sabrina refused to answer questions without an attorney.
Ethan didn’t care.
He sat beside Lily upstairs while she slept.
Every few minutes, she moved restlessly beneath the blanket.
Once, she whispered for her mother.
Ethan stayed.
At 1:17 a.m., Maria appeared in the doorway.
“Mr. Ethan?”
He looked up.
“There’s something you need to see.”
He followed her into the hallway.
Maria lowered her voice.
“About six months ago, Miss Sabrina told me never to enter the west storage room.”
Ethan frowned.
“What storage room?”
“The one beside the old library.”
“That room hasn’t been used in years.”
“I know.”
Maria looked uneasy.
“But she changed the lock.”
Ethan stood.
“Show me.”
They crossed the dark house.
At the end of the west corridor, Maria stopped in front of an oak door.
A new electronic lock had been installed.
Ethan stared at it.
“This wasn’t here.”
“No, sir.”
“When?”
“Last spring.”
Six months ago.
Around the same time Claire contacted Detective Hale.
Ethan called Hale.
Twenty-five minutes later, the detective returned with two officers.
Because Sabrina was still considered a resident, Hale obtained permission from Ethan to inspect the common property but refused to force the locked door without proper authority.
Then Ethan remembered something.
“This house belongs entirely to me.”
Hale looked at him.
“You’re certain?”
“The deed is in my name.”
“Then open your room.”
Ethan took a heavy brass fireplace tool from the library.
Three strikes destroyed the lock.
The door swung inward.
Maria covered her mouth.
The room wasn’t storage.
It was an office.
A desk stood against the wall.
Three filing cabinets sat beside it.
There was a shredder.
A printer.
Two laptops.
And dozens of folders.
Hale put on gloves.
“Don’t touch anything.”
Ethan’s eyes moved across the room.
Then stopped.
On the wall was a photograph.
Claire.
Taken recently.
She was walking into a grocery store.
Another photograph showed Lily leaving school.
Another showed the Blue Haven Motel.
Ethan’s hands curled into fists.
“She was watching them.”
Hale opened the nearest folder.
Bank statements.
Transfer records.
Corporate documents.
Then he found a folder labeled C.C.
Inside was a copy of Claire’s trust.
Twelve million dollars.
Exactly as Hale had said.
But beneath it was something worse.
A death certificate.
Claire Carter.
Ethan picked it up.
“This is fake.”
Hale examined it.
“It looks official.”
“She wasn’t dead.”
“Which means somebody needed the government to believe she was.”
Ethan turned the page.
There was a signature at the bottom.
The person who had identified Claire’s supposed remains.
Sabrina Vale.
Ethan stared at the name.
Then Hale opened another folder.
Inside were wire transfers.
Millions of dollars had moved out of Claire’s trust over eight years.
The final destination appeared again and again.
Vale Holdings.
Sabrina’s private company.
Ethan closed his eyes.
She hadn’t merely lied about Claire’s death.
She had profited from it.
Then Maria screamed.
Ethan spun around.
She was staring beneath the desk.
There was a small digital recorder taped underneath.
Hale carefully removed it.
He pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then Sabrina’s voice.
“If Claire comes back, Ethan loses everything.”
Another voice answered.
A man.
“What about the girl?”
Sabrina replied without hesitation.
“The child can never reach him.”
Ethan felt the room tilt.
Then the unknown man asked one final question.
“And if she does?”
May you like
Sabrina’s answer came clearly through the speaker.
“Then make sure she disappears too.”
