Chapter 8 - CLAIRE’S LETTER
Maya had promised Claire she would never tell Ethan unless Oliver was in danger.
Oliver was now in danger.
So the promise had changed.
Back at the estate, Ethan sat across from Maya while Oliver slept against his chest.
“What did my wife tell you?”
Maya swallowed.
“Three weeks before she died, Claire asked me to meet her at a coffee shop.”
“Why?”
“She was scared.”
“Of who?”
“Vanessa.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Vanessa wasn’t part of our lives then.”
“She was.”
“What?”
Maya opened the bottom drawer of the staff office desk.
From beneath a stack of old payroll envelopes, she removed a sealed plastic bag.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
“I kept this because Claire told me to.”
Ethan took it with shaking hands.
The first line destroyed him.
Ethan, if you are reading this, something has happened to me.
He stopped.
Maya continued for him.
“Claire discovered Vanessa and Grant were connected before Vanessa ever met you.”
Ethan looked up.
“How?”
“Vanessa worked for the investment company that managed part of Claire’s family trust.”
“That doesn’t make sense. She told me she was in event planning.”
“She lied.”
Maya pointed at the letter.
“Claire believed someone was moving money between shell accounts.”
Ethan read faster.
His face drained.
“She suspected Grant?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she come to me?”
“She planned to.”
“What happened?”
Maya hesitated.
“She died.”
Silence.
Claire’s death had officially been caused by a highway accident.
Wet road.
Loss of control.
No second vehicle.
At least that was what everyone had believed.
Ethan whispered, “Are you saying they killed my wife?”
“I’m saying Claire was afraid of them.”
He kept reading.
Near the end, Claire had written another sentence.
If anything happens to me, protect Oliver from the woman with the blue sapphire ring.
Ethan’s eyes lifted.
Vanessa always wore a blue sapphire ring.
Always.
Maya remembered seeing it flash beneath the patio lights just before the stroller moved.
Ethan pressed both hands against his face.
“I brought her into my house.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I gave her access to my son.”
He stood abruptly.
“I proposed to her.”
Maya said nothing.
His phone rang.
Detective Ortiz.
“We found Vanessa.”
Ethan straightened.
“Where?”
“Caldwell Memorial Hospital.”
“What happened?”
“She walked into the emergency department twenty minutes ago with a head injury.”
Maya frowned.
“She was attacked?”
“That’s what she claims.”
“By who?”
Ortiz paused.
“Grant Mercer.”
Maya looked at Ethan.
Vanessa and Grant had been working together.
May you like
Now one of them had turned on the other.
And that meant whatever secret they were hiding was beginning to tear them apart.
