Chapter 9 - CLAIRE’S LAST SECRETLena looked at Ethan.
“Well?”
“That was manipulation.”
“Probably.”
She waited.
“But?”
Ethan stared out the window.
“Claire and I didn’t meet by accident.”
Lena’s expression changed.
“What does that mean?”
“I knew who Margaret was before Claire introduced us.”
“Why?”
“My father did business with Daniel Hart years ago.”
“You knew about Daniel?”
“No. Not the family connection.”
Lena folded her arms.
“Keep going.”
Ethan hated this.
Claire deserved to explain her own choices.
She never would.
“My father believed Margaret destroyed him.”
“How?”
“She forced him out of a shipping company they built together. He killed himself two years later.”
Lena stared.
“So you married Margaret’s daughter for revenge?”
“No.”
“Did you meet Claire because of Margaret?”
Ethan didn’t answer quickly enough.
Lena’s eyes hardened.
“Oh my God.”
“I planned to get close to Margaret.”
“And Claire was your way in.”
“At first.”
“Wow.”
“I fell in love with her.”
“That doesn’t erase the beginning.”
“I know.”
Noah whimpered between them.
Ethan lowered his voice.
“I told Claire before we married.”
Lena stopped.
“What?”
“She knew.”
He looked down.
“She told me she’d already figured it out.”
“What did she do?”
“She threw a glass of wine at me.”
Lena almost smiled.
“That sounds right.”
“Then she made me replace her rug.”
“That also sounds right.”
Ethan’s phone buzzed.
A file notification.
Claire’s burner phone had automatically unlocked another folder.
IF ETHAN FINDS LENA.
Ethan and Lena looked at each other.
“Your wife planned everything,” Lena whispered.
“She liked lists.”
They opened the video.
Claire appeared on-screen.
Alive.
Sitting in Ethan’s study.
She looked tired.
Scared.
“Lena, if Ethan found you, he probably stared at you until you wanted to throw something at him.”
Lena looked at Ethan.
He looked offended.
Claire smiled weakly.
“Please don’t.”
Lena laughed through tears.
Claire continued.
“I didn’t contact you because I thought staying away would keep you safe.”
Her smile disappeared.
“Margaret knew I had found your name.”
Lena swallowed.
“She threatened you.”
“Yes.”
Claire’s recorded voice seemed to answer.
“She told me Elena had stolen documents that could destroy the Bennett family.”
The video cut to photographs.
Old ledgers.
Bank records.
Trust papers.
“Mom had them?” Lena asked.
Claire continued.
“I think Elena hid them somewhere Margaret could never access.”
A photograph appeared.
The restaurant.
Specifically the old framed photo near the bar.
Lena sat forward.
“No.”
Ethan understood.
“The frame.”
They had removed the photograph.
But never checked behind its backing.
Claire continued.
“If I’m right, Elena left proof inside that picture.”
Marcus turned the car immediately.
They raced back toward Manhattan.
Forty minutes later, they reached the restaurant.
Fire trucks filled the block.
Lena stared.
“No.”
Flames poured from the second-floor windows.
Marco stood outside beneath a blanket.
Lena ran toward him.
“What happened?”
“Kitchen fire,” a firefighter said.
Marco shook his head.
“No.”
He looked directly at Lena.
“They came for the photograph.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Where is it?”
Marco stared toward the burning building.
May you like
“I put it in your locker before they arrived.”
Lena ran inside before anyone could stop her.
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