Chapter 10 - The War Changes)
The custody case suddenly became much more dangerous.
Claire insisted the financial discovery remain sealed.
Michael agreed.
Lauren did not know exactly what Emma owned.
Derek knew enough to panic.
He offered a settlement.
Lauren would consent to Claire receiving temporary guardianship.
In exchange, Claire would stop investigating the financial accounts.
Michael laughed when he read it.
Claire did not.
“They’re terrified.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because identity theft involving six hundred thousand dollars is already serious.”
Michael tapped the corporate certificate.
“But if they fraudulently borrowed against an asset potentially worth tens of millions, we are discussing another universe of liability.”
Claire looked toward the conference room window.
“Can they lose everything?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Michael studied her.
“That won’t fix Emma.”
“I know.”
“Then remember what winning means.”
Claire looked at him.
“Emma gets to sleep without wondering whether someone will leave her beside a road.”
Michael nodded.
“That’s winning.”
Derek became increasingly aggressive.
He called Claire from unknown numbers.
She blocked them.
He appeared outside Emma’s school.
Security removed him.
Then Lauren tried another strategy.
She wrote Emma a letter.
Emma opened it during therapy.
Sweetheart,
Mommy forgives you.
Emma stopped reading.
Her therapist asked why.
“She forgives me?”
Claire felt anger rise.
Emma continued.
I know Aunt Claire has confused you and made you think terrible things about your family. But when you are ready to apologize, Mommy will always consider letting you come home.
Emma folded the letter.
“Can I throw it away?”
Claire nodded.
Emma tore it in half.
Then quarters.
Then smaller pieces.
For the first time, she did not cry.
The final hearing was scheduled for June 24.
One week before it, Margaret came to Claire’s house.
She looked ten years older.
“I need to tell you something.”
Claire let her inside.
Margaret sat at the kitchen table.
“Your father confronted Lauren three days before he died.”
Claire waited.
“He told her he had changed his estate plan.”
“Did he tell her how?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“They fought.”
“About Emma?”
“Yes.”
Margaret twisted her wedding ring.
“Thomas said Lauren had used Emma’s identity because she believed a child would never discover it.”
Claire’s jaw tightened.
“He told her he had created something she could never touch.”
“The trust.”
“I assume.”
“What did Lauren say?”
Margaret looked down.
“She said if he destroyed her life, he would never see Emma again.”
Claire felt sick.
“What did Dad do?”
“He laughed.”
“Laughed?”
“He told her, ‘That threat only works if Emma belongs to you more than you belong to her.’”
Claire remembered her father.
Quiet.
Patient.
Rarely confrontational.
“What happened three days later?”
Margaret’s face changed.
“He died.”
Claire stared.
Thomas Bennett’s death had been ruled a heart attack.
He was sixty-six.
There had been no autopsy.
“Mom.”
Margaret immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“You think something happened.”
“No.”
“You just connected them.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Did Dad have heart problems?”
“Minor.”
“Was Lauren with him that day?”
Margaret stood.
“Stop.”
“Was Derek?”
“I said stop.”
Claire rose too.
“Mom.”
Margaret grabbed her purse.
At the doorway she turned.
“There is one thing I never told the police.”
Claire’s pulse accelerated.
“What?”
“Thomas called me forty minutes before he died.”
“What did he say?”
May you like
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“He said, ‘If anything happens tonight, make sure Claire gets Emma.’”
