Chapter 1 - The Morning After
Claire woke before sunrise.
For several seconds, she didn't remember where she was.
Then she saw the unfamiliar ceiling above her.
Her guest room.
Her old apartment.
The place she had rented two years earlier after leaving the family home.
Her phone vibrated against the nightstand.
Once.
Then twice.
Then continuously.
Claire reached for it.
Thirty-seven missed calls.
Twenty-one text messages.
Six voicemails.
Most were from Mark.
Three were from Rachel.
The rest were from numbers she didn't recognize.
Claire stared at the screen.
Then another call came through.
Ethan.
She answered.
"What's happening?"
Ethan didn't greet her.
"Claire, are you alone?"
She sat upright.
"Yes."
"Lock the door."
Her stomach tightened.
"Why?"
"Just do it."
Claire got out of bed and checked the lock.
"It's locked."
There was a long silence.
"Ethan?"
"I saw something this morning."
"What?"
"I can't explain it over the phone."
"Then explain it."
His breathing sounded uneven.
"Your mother received a package."
Claire frowned.
"A package?"
"From the Carter & Barrett Trust."
Claire went completely still.
The name meant nothing to her.
Or at least, it should have.
"What trust?"
"I thought you knew."
"I don't."
Ethan lowered his voice.
"Claire, your name is on it."
She stared at the wall.
"What do you mean my name is on it?"
"I mean the document inside has your name on it."
"What's the document?"
"I don't know."
"You just said you saw it."
"I saw the envelope. Rachel showed it to me."
Claire closed her eyes.
"What did Rachel say?"
"She said your mother has been hiding something from you."
A cold sensation moved through Claire's chest.
"What?"
"I don't know the whole story."
"Ethan."
"I'll come over."
"No."
"Claire..."
"Not yet."
She looked at the phone again.
Another message appeared.
This one was from Linda.
You need to come home.
Claire stared at the words.
Then another message appeared.
We need to talk before you make a mistake.
Claire almost laughed.
A mistake.
After eighteen years of swallowing insults, apologies, accusations, and carefully chosen silences, her mother believed leaving dinner was the mistake.
She typed one sentence.
I'm not coming back.
Before she could send it, another message arrived.
If you tell anyone what you know, you will destroy your father.
Claire's thumb stopped above the screen.
Her father.
Robert Barrett had been dead for six years.
Claire read the message again.
Then again.
Her heart began pounding.
She called Linda.
Her mother answered immediately.
"Claire."
"What do you mean, destroy Dad?"
Silence.
"Mom?"
Linda finally spoke.
"You need to come home."
"No."
"Claire, listen to me."
"You just told me last night you wished I had never been your daughter."
"I was angry."
"You meant it."
"I was trying to protect you."
Claire's jaw tightened.
"Protect me from what?"
Another silence.
Then Linda said something that made Claire sit down.
"From the truth about your father."
The call ended.
Claire stared at the phone.
May you like
She had spent six years believing she knew how her father died.
Now, for the first time, she wondered whether she had ever been told the truth at all.
