Chapter 2 - The File With Her Name
Ethan arrived forty minutes later.
He was carrying a brown folder.
Claire opened the door but didn't invite him inside immediately.
"Did my mother send you?"
"No."
"Mark?"
"No."
"Rachel?"
Ethan shook his head.
"Then why are you here?"
"Because I promised your father."
Claire froze.
"What?"
Ethan looked at her.
"Before he died."
She stepped aside.
"Come in."
They sat at the small kitchen table.
Ethan placed the folder between them.
"I found this in my father's storage unit."
Claire stared at it.
"Your father?"
"Yes."
"Why would he have something belonging to my family?"
"Because our fathers knew each other."
Claire frowned.
"They were business partners."
"For a while."
She looked at the folder.
"What's inside?"
"I haven't opened it."
"You brought it here without opening it?"
"I didn't think it was mine to open."
Claire touched the edge.
There was handwriting across the front.
Claire Barrett.
Below her name was a date.
October 14, 2008.
Claire's fingers went cold.
"That's my birthday."
Ethan nodded.
"I know."
Claire looked at him.
"How do you know that?"
"Because I checked."
She slowly opened the folder.
Inside was a photograph.
Claire picked it up.
It showed her father standing beside a much younger Linda.
Between them stood a man Claire didn't recognize.
Behind them was a large brick building.
At the bottom of the photograph was a handwritten note.
For Claire, when she is old enough to understand.
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
"Who is the man?"
Ethan leaned forward.
"That's Thomas Barrett."
Claire blinked.
"My grandfather?"
"No."
She looked confused.
"Then who?"
Ethan swallowed.
"The man your mother told everyone was your father's closest business associate."
Claire looked back at the photograph.
Something about the man's face felt familiar.
"Why would my father leave this for me?"
"I don't know."
She pulled out the next document.
It was a bank statement.
Then another.
Then another.
The accounts were all connected to a company Claire had never heard of.
Barrett Holdings.
She frowned.
"My family owned Barrett Industries."
"That's what everyone thinks."
Claire looked up.
"What do you mean?"
Ethan pointed to the papers.
"Barrett Industries wasn't your father's only company."
Claire read the figures.
Her eyes widened.
"These numbers..."
"I know."
"This is millions."
Ethan nodded.
Claire turned another page.
There was a legal document.
Her name appeared again.
Beneficiary.
Claire's breath caught.
"Beneficiary of what?"
Ethan shook his head.
"Keep reading."
She did.
And the further she went, the less sense her childhood made.
Her father had created a private trust.
It had been established the same week Claire was born.
But the trust had one strange condition.
Claire could not access it until her thirty-fifth birthday.
She looked at Ethan.
"Why thirty-five?"
"I don't know."
She checked the date.
Her thirty-fifth birthday was three weeks away.
Claire slowly leaned back.
"That's why my mother is afraid."
Ethan said nothing.
Claire looked at the photograph again.
Then she noticed something.
The man standing beside her father was wearing a ring.
A silver ring with a black stone.
May you like
She had seen that ring before.
On her mother's desk.
