Chapter 6 - The Fortune Nobody Knew Existed)
Claire spent the next month trying not to think about File 1224-B.
Her priority was Emma.
The child began therapy.
Her nightmares gradually became less frequent.
She stopped hiding food beneath her bed.
That discovery had nearly destroyed Claire.
One night Claire found crackers, granola bars and two apples wrapped in napkins beneath Emma’s mattress.
“Why are these here?”
Emma panicked.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire immediately softened.
“You’re not in trouble.”
Emma began crying.
“Derek sometimes said bad kids didn’t get dinner.”
Claire sat beside her.
“You will always get dinner here.”
“Even if I’m bad?”
“Even if you set the kitchen on fire.”
Emma almost smiled.
“What if I burn two kitchens?”
“I’ll order pizza.”
That became their joke.
But outside Claire’s house, the family war intensified.
Lauren started posting carefully worded messages online about parental alienation.
Margaret called relatives.
Ryan demanded another meeting.
Claire refused.
Then Derek filed a statement accusing Claire of manipulating Emma for financial gain.
That caught Michael’s attention.
“What financial gain?”
Claire asked.
“Exactly.”
Michael placed the filing on his desk.
“They don’t know what’s inside 1224-B.”
“Neither do we.”
“But Derek suspects something exists.”
“How?”
Michael leaned back.
“Maybe Thomas told him.”
Claire remembered the files in the hidden office.
Four million dollars invested in Derek’s company.
“What if Dad confronted him?”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.”
Michael began tracing Bennett Horizon.
What he discovered was ugly.
Derek’s company had been losing money for years.
Loans were hidden through subsidiaries.
Thomas’s investment had been used as collateral.
Then came a transfer made three months before Thomas died.
Two million dollars.
From a Thomas Bennett holding account.
To Bennett Horizon.
No authorization document could be found.
Michael stared at the transfer.
“Claire, this may be theft.”
“From Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Did Lauren know?”
“We don’t know.”
Then they found another transfer.
Nine hundred thousand.
Recipient: LBB Consulting.
Lauren Beth Bennett.
Claire closed her eyes.
Her sister had received almost a million dollars.
Lauren had always claimed her lifestyle came from Derek.
Apparently not.
Claire called Ryan.
“Did Dad ever give you money before he died?”
“Sure.”
“How much?”
“Maybe fifty thousand over several years. Why?”
“Did you receive nine hundred thousand?”
Ryan laughed.
“I wish.”
Claire told him about Lauren.
Silence.
Then Ryan said, “That can’t be right.”
“It is.”
“You’re trying to make her look guilty.”
“I’m reading bank records.”
“Dad could have given it to her.”
“Then why hide it?”
Ryan hung up.
An hour later Margaret called.
“You had no right.”
Claire almost laughed.
“Ryan works quickly.”
“You’re digging through your dead father’s private affairs.”
“Because Emma may have been robbed.”
Margaret became quiet.
Claire caught it.
“Mom?”
Nothing.
“You know something.”
“I know your father loved all of you.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Margaret whispered, “Thomas became paranoid near the end.”
“About Derek?”
“About everyone.”
“Did Lauren take money?”
Margaret started crying.
Claire had rarely heard her mother cry.
“Mom.”
“I thought it would stop.”
“What would stop?”
Margaret hung up.
That night someone broke into Thomas’s hidden office.
Nothing valuable was taken.
Except the Lauren and Derek boxes.
But whoever entered made one mistake.
May you like
A security camera Claire had installed three days earlier recorded the car.
It belonged to Ryan.
