Chapter 8 - The Day Claire Forgot
Claire could not remember the hospital.
She tried.
The more she tried, the harder her head hurt.
"I was never hospitalized at sixteen."
Daniel shook his head.
"You were."
"My mother would have told me."
"Your mother told you something else."
"What?"
"That you had a panic attack."
Claire stared at him.
"I remember that."
"That wasn't what happened."
Ethan stepped closer.
"What happened?"
Daniel looked at Claire.
"You witnessed something."
"What?"
"Your father and Linda arguing."
Claire's memory flickered.
A hallway.
A red coat.
Her father's voice.
Her mother crying.
Then nothing.
"What did I witness?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Your father found out someone had been using your identity."
Claire frowned.
"My identity?"
"Your name was attached to several accounts."
"I was sixteen."
"Exactly."
Claire's face went pale.
"Someone used me as a beneficiary."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To hide money."
"How much?"
"Enough to destroy the company."
Claire sat down.
Ethan crouched beside her.
"Claire."
She looked at him.
"I don't understand."
Daniel placed another document on the desk.
"Your father discovered that money had been transferred into accounts established in your name."
"Did he know?"
"Yes."
"Did Mom?"
"Yes."
"Then why didn't anyone tell me?"
"Because you were sixteen."
Claire shook her head.
"No."
Daniel looked at her.
"Your father wanted to tell you."
"What stopped him?"
"Linda."
Claire closed her eyes.
Her mother's face appeared in her mind.
Not as she was now.
As she had been when Claire was sixteen.
Terrified.
Begging.
Claire suddenly remembered something.
A sentence.
One sentence.
Her father had whispered it to her.
Don't let her take the key.
Claire opened her eyes.
"What key?"
Daniel looked at her sharply.
"What did you remember?"
"I don't know."
"Claire."
"Something about a key."
Daniel went pale.
"Where is it?"
"I don't know."
Ethan looked at him.
"What does the key open?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Claire stood.
"Tell me."
"It opens the original trust."
"And?"
"It proves who created it."
"Who?"
Daniel's voice dropped.
"Your father didn't create the trust."
Claire stared at him.
"Then who did?"
Daniel looked at the photograph.
"Thomas."
Claire's breathing stopped.
"My grandfather?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Thomas wasn't your father's brother."
Claire's face went blank.
"What?"
May you like
Daniel whispered.
"He was your father's father."
