Chapter 10 - The Name Missing From the Trust)
Daniel resisted for almost an hour.
Then Claire threatened to walk.
He finally told her.
The original trust had three beneficiaries.
Daniel.
Claire.
And someone named Rebecca Reeves.
“Your daughter?” Claire asked.
Daniel stared through the hotel window.
“Yes.”
Claire had never known Daniel had a child.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you not know?”
“She disappeared with her mother twenty-four years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because Concord threatened them.”
Claire felt anger rising again.
“You created a trust involving me because your own daughter was missing?”
“I created it for both of you.”
“Why was her name removed?”
“It wasn’t.”
Rachel placed an older trust document on the table.
Rebecca’s name appeared.
In later versions, it didn’t.
Someone had altered them.
Grant.
Claire understood immediately.
“Dad removed her.”
Daniel nodded.
“Why?”
“If Rebecca returned, Grant’s access became much harder.”
Claire thought about the anonymous messages.
“You said you only sent some.”
“Yes.”
“Who sent the others?”
“I hoped you knew.”
Claire pulled up the messages.
The first warning.
Do not let your father board any flight today.
Then the photograph.
Then the bank records.
Daniel identified which messages were his.
The others included the warning about Grant’s flight.
The photograph of Grant and Daniel.
And the message telling Claire to check her signatures.
Rachel said, “Someone else has the records.”
Daniel nodded.
Claire asked, “Rebecca?”
“Possibly.”
Her phone buzzed.
Everyone stared.
Unknown sender.
Claire opened it.
A photograph appeared.
A woman in her late twenties standing outside the hotel.
Taken minutes earlier.
Below it:
YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR ME.
Claire ran toward the window.
A woman stood across the street.
Dark coat.
Brown hair.
Watching the building.
Claire grabbed her phone and ran downstairs.
Marcus followed despite his injured wrist.
By the time Claire reached the sidewalk, the woman was walking away.
“Rebecca!”
She stopped.
Slowly turned.
Claire crossed the street.
“Are you Rebecca Reeves?”
The woman studied her.
“No.”
Claire stopped.
“My name is Sophie Shaw.”
Shaw.
Claire remembered.
Eleanor Shaw.
Richard Shaw.
“Who are you?”
Sophie handed Claire an envelope.
“My grandmother told me to give you this if Grant Parker ever lost control.”
“Your grandmother?”
“Eleanor.”
Claire stared.
“Eleanor is alive?”
Sophie looked toward the hotel.
“She was.”
Claire understood the tense.
“I’m sorry.”
Sophie’s expression remained controlled.
“She died six days ago.”
“What’s in the envelope?”
“The reason your father canceled your airline ticket.”
Claire frowned.
“I thought that was because we argued.”
“No.”
Sophie shook her head.
“The argument gave him an excuse.”
Claire felt cold.
“An excuse for what?”
“To separate you from the others.”
“Why?”
May you like
Sophie looked directly into her eyes.
“Because Grant knew someone planned to bring down the Parker family plane.”
