Chapter 6 - CLAIRE
Victor Dane demanded immunity.
He didn’t get it.
But when detectives showed him photographs from Sabrina’s hidden office, his confidence disappeared.
“She kept those?”
Hale leaned across the interrogation table.
“You sound surprised.”
Victor rubbed both hands over his face.
“Sabrina was supposed to destroy everything.”
“Where is Claire?”
“I don’t know.”
Hale slammed his palm against the table.
“Wrong answer.”
Victor flinched.
“She was at the quarry cabin.”
“Was?”
“Sabrina moved her.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Where?”
Victor hesitated.
Ethan watched through the observation window.
He wanted to break through the glass.
Hale leaned closer.
“There’s a seven-year-old girl waiting for her mother.”
Victor looked down.
“She wasn’t supposed to be involved.”
“But she is.”
Victor finally spoke.
“There’s an old medical facility outside Fairmont.”
Police moved immediately.
Ethan refused to remain behind.
At 3:42 p.m., vehicles surrounded the abandoned facility.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside, they found an empty room.
A chair.
Rope.
Water bottles.
And Claire’s silver necklace.
Ethan picked it up.
“Claire!”
His voice echoed through the building.
Nothing.
Then—
Three knocks.
Faint.
From behind a wall.
Ethan froze.
“Claire?”
Three more knocks.
Officers rushed toward a metal utility door.
It was locked from the outside.
They broke it open.
A woman collapsed forward.
Ethan caught her.
For a moment, neither sibling spoke.
Claire was thinner than he remembered.
Older.
Exhausted.
But alive.
“Ethan?”
He wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m here.”
Claire began crying.
“I thought she’d gotten Lily.”
“She didn’t.”
Claire pulled back.
“My daughter?”
“She’s safe.”
The relief on her face was immediate.
Then terror returned.
“Sabrina knows about the second document.”
“What document?”
Claire gripped his arm.
“Dad’s final codicil.”
“What does it say?”
“That if anyone intentionally concealed my existence or interfered with the trust, control of the family company transfers away from them permanently.”
“To whom?”
Claire looked at him.
“To Lily.”
Ethan stared.
His seven-year-old niece was now potentially the beneficiary of an estate worth hundreds of millions.
And Sabrina knew it.
Claire suddenly looked toward the hallway.
“Where’s Victor?”
“In custody.”
Her expression changed.
“Then Sabrina knows he talked.”
Hale entered.
“We need to move.”
Claire shook her head.
“You don’t understand.”
“What?”
“She doesn’t need Victor anymore.”
May you like
Claire looked at Ethan.
“She needs Lily.”
