Chapter 8 - claire bennett was never supposed to ask about her father
Claire's father had been named Stephen Bennett.
That was the truth printed on her birth certificate.
He had been a high school science teacher.
He had died in a highway accident when Claire was thirteen.
Her mother died seven years later from cancer.
Claire had no surviving parents.
She had lived with that truth most of her adult life.
Now Vivian had destroyed it with two words.
He didn't.
Claire followed her into the elevator lobby.
"You don't get to say that and leave."
Vivian pressed the button.
"I already said more than I intended."
"Who was my father?"
"You know his name."
"Was Stephen Bennett alive?"
"No."
Claire stopped.
"So what are you saying?"
The elevator arrived.
Vivian entered.
Claire blocked the doors.
Vivian looked tired suddenly.
Older.
"The man who raised you was Stephen Bennett."
"But?"
"He was not the man who fathered you."
Claire felt a roaring in her ears.
"Who was?"
Vivian looked past her toward Daniel approaching from the conference room.
Then back at Claire.
"Ask Daniel why Charles Ashford paid your mother's mortgage for eleven years."
The elevator doors closed.
Claire did not move.
Daniel stopped beside her.
"What did she say?"
"You heard."
"Claire."
"Did your father pay my mother's mortgage?"
"I don't know."
"Find out."
He nodded once.
Within an hour, Marcus had records.
Payments from a holding company tied to Charles Ashford had covered the Bennett family's mortgage from the year Claire was born until Stephen Bennett died.
The payments stopped afterward.
Claire stared at the spreadsheet.
"Why?"
Daniel had no answer.
Marcus had found another connection.
Stephen Bennett had not merely been a science teacher.
Before moving to Connecticut, he worked as a research chemist for an Ashford subsidiary.
Claire looked at Daniel.
"You knew?"
"No."
"Your family is everywhere."
"I know how that sounds."
"Do you?"
Daniel sat opposite her.
"Claire, I didn't know any of this."
She believed him.
That almost made it worse.
They drove to the small house where Claire had grown up.
It belonged to another family now.
She did not knock.
She simply stood across the street.
"I used to wait for him at that window."
Daniel stood beside her.
"My dad."
She swallowed.
"Stephen."
"He's still your father."
She looked at him.
"That's a convenient thing to say."
"It's true."
"He taught me to ride a bicycle. He packed notes in my lunch. He cried when I broke my arm because he blamed himself."
Daniel said nothing.
Claire continued.
"If he knew I wasn't biologically his, then he deserved to tell me in his own time."
"Yes."
"And if he didn't know..."
Her voice broke.
Daniel finished softly.
"Then someone stole that choice from him too."
Claire wiped her eyes.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Daniel looked at her.
She answered on speaker.
"Hello?"
A woman's voice.
"Claire."
She recognized it.
"Elena."
Daniel immediately signaled Marcus.
Elena continued.
"You need to stop looking."
"You worked for Thomas."
"No."
"You followed my daughter."
"I protected her."
Claire's anger exploded.
"You photographed her school."
"Because Thomas had people near it."
"You were one of them."
"Claire, listen to me."
"No. You listen. Stay away from Lily."
"You don't understand what she is."
Claire went still.
Daniel leaned toward the phone.
"Choose your next words carefully."
Elena inhaled.
"Daniel."
"Where are you?"
"I can't tell you."
"Then tell me where Thomas is."
"I can't."
"Can't or won't?"
A long pause.
"He's looking for the memorandum."
"So are we."
"Then you're putting Lily in danger."
Claire grabbed the phone.
"What does the memorandum say?"
"I don't know."
"Vivian says it could destroy the Ashford family."
"Vivian doesn't know half of it."
"What do you know?"
Elena whispered, "Charles Ashford didn't choose Lily because she was Daniel's daughter."
Claire looked at Daniel.
"Then why?"
"Because of you."
The call cut.
Marcus began tracing.
Too late.
Daniel stared at Claire.
"What does that mean?"
Claire laughed bitterly.
"Apparently everyone knows except us."
They returned to the Ashford estate after dark.
Lily was asleep.
Rachel was watching television in the guest wing.
At 11:40 p.m., an alarm sounded.
Marcus appeared moments later.
"Someone breached the old greenhouse."
Daniel and Claire followed security across the property.
The greenhouse had not been used in years.
One glass panel was broken.
Inside, beneath a stone planter, they found a metal compartment.
Daniel looked at Claire.
"This wasn't here when I was a kid."
Marcus forced it open.
Inside was a photograph.
Charles Ashford.
Claire's mother, Anne Bennett.
Stephen Bennett.
And a baby.
Claire.
On the back, Charles had written a date.
Claire's first birthday.
Beneath it were six words.
To protect her, she must never know.
Claire turned the photograph over again.
May you like
A second line appeared near the bottom.
If Thomas learns what she inherited, everything begins again.
