Chapter 2 - the letter daniel never received
Claire pushed through the crowd.
“Sophie!”
Guests turned as she passed, but the music and applause swallowed her voice.
The magician stood alone beside his table.
“Where is the little girl who was here?”
He pointed toward the east corridor.
“A lady said you sent for her.”
Claire ran.
The east corridor led away from the public rooms and toward the family wing. Portraits of dead Ashcrofts watched from dark walls as she hurried beneath them.
At the far end, Sophie stood beside a tall display case.
Vivienne’s assistant, Lila Crane, was kneeling in front of her.
One hand rested on Sophie’s shoulder.
The other held a pair of small silver scissors.
Claire crossed the distance before Lila could move.
She knocked the scissors from the woman’s hand and pulled Sophie behind her.
“What were you doing?”
Lila rose quickly.
“The chain was caught in her hair.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Sophie whispered.
Lila’s face hardened.
“Mrs. Ashcroft asked me to place the locket in the auction collection. It is family property.”
“It belongs to Sophie.”
“That is not what our records show.”
Claire stepped closer.
“Your records are about to become evidence.”
Lila glanced toward the security camera in the corner.
The small red light was off.
She smiled.
“Not everything is being recorded tonight.”
She walked away.
Claire knelt and examined Sophie’s neck.
There was no mark, but the child was trembling.
“I’m sorry,” Sophie said.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“She said you were waiting for me.”
“From now on, we make her prove it.”
“How?”
“She has to tell you the password.”
Sophie thought for a moment.
“Bluebird?”
“Bluebird.”
Claire hugged her.
Over Sophie’s shoulder, she noticed a small white card lying beneath the display case. Lila must have dropped it while reaching for the scissors.
Claire picked it up.
It was a temporary security pass issued for the gala.
On the back, someone had written a room number.
E-17.
Beneath it were three words.
Burn after the vote.
Claire slipped the card into her handbag.
Marcus Vale appeared at the end of the corridor.
His silver hair was cut close, and his formal security uniform did little to hide the old military stiffness in his movements.
“I was looking for you,” he said.
“You were supposed to watch Sophie.”
“I was called to the north gate. Someone reported an armed man outside.”
“Was there one?”
“No.”
Claire showed him the scissors.
Marcus looked toward the disabled camera.
“They cut the east corridor feed five minutes ago.”
“Who has access?”
“Vivienne, Lila and me.”
“Then restore it and keep Sophie with you.”
Sophie clung harder to Claire’s hand.
“No.”
“Sophie.”
“I’m staying with you.”
Claire wanted to insist, but seven years of raising Sophie had taught her the difference between stubbornness and instinct.
“All right. But you do exactly what I say.”
Marcus’s radio crackled.
A guard’s voice came through.
“Mr. Vale, Daniel Ashcroft has entered the estate.”
Claire’s heart stopped for a fraction of a second.
Marcus noticed.
“You don’t have to see him yet.”
“Yes, I do.”
She had spent years imagining that moment.
Sometimes Daniel apologized.
Sometimes he denied everything.
Sometimes she said nothing and simply walked past him with Sophie’s hand in hers.
None of those imagined scenes prepared her for seeing him at the end of the corridor.
Daniel looked older than the photograph in Sophie’s locket.
The careless confidence he had possessed at twenty-eight had been replaced by a harder stillness. There was a faint scar near his left temple and exhaustion beneath his eyes.
He stopped when he saw Claire.
For several seconds, neither of them moved.
Then his gaze shifted to Sophie.
Claire placed herself slightly in front of the child.
Daniel noticed the movement.
“I wasn’t told you would be here.”
“I wasn’t told you were coming.”
“My father’s attorney called me.”
“Edmund has been dead for three months.”
“The attorney said tonight’s board vote concerned his final trust.”
“It does.”
Daniel’s eyes returned to Sophie.
“How old is she?”
Claire felt Sophie’s fingers tighten around hers.
“Seven.”
A quiet calculation moved across Daniel’s face.
Then his jaw hardened.
“Claire.”
“Not here.”
“Is she mine?”
“You forfeited the right to ask me that at a charity gala.”
“I wrote to you.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I sent letters for months.”
“I received one.”
Daniel stared at her.
Claire opened her handbag and removed the protected copy.
She handed it to him.
He read the letter.
The color drained from his face.
“I never wrote this.”
“I know.”
“I would never have said this.”
“I know that now.”
Daniel examined the signature.
“Where did you get it?”
“Vivienne gave it to me outside these gates seven years ago.”
His eyes moved toward the ballroom.
“She told me you had left with another man.”
“She told me you wanted nothing to do with me.”
“She showed me a letter.”
“Did it have my signature?”
“Yes.”
“Then we were both easier to control than we believed.”
Daniel looked at Sophie again.
This time, his expression was not suspicion.
It was grief.
Sophie remained behind Claire.
Daniel took one careful step closer.
“Hello, Sophie.”
She did not answer.
“My name is Daniel.”
“I know.”
His face changed.
“How?”
She touched her locket.
“My grandfather gave me your picture.”
Before Daniel could respond, Vivienne’s voice echoed from the ballroom speakers.
“The auction will begin in five minutes.”
Daniel looked toward the sound.
“My father gave her that locket?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“That is what we are about to find out.”
Claire took Sophie’s hand and walked toward the ballroom.
Daniel followed.
At the entrance, Lila stepped in front of him.
“Mrs. Ashcroft asked to speak with you privately.”
Daniel did not stop.
“She has had seven years to speak.”
Lila lowered her voice.
“Your father’s final medical report arrived.”
Daniel paused.
Claire saw the hesitation.
Lila continued.
“The report proves he was not mentally competent when he created the trust.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
“Is that true?”
“No.”
May you like
“How do you know?”
“Because I was the attorney who drafted it.”
