Chapter 7 - Two Sisters
Grant moved in front of his father.
Vanessa raised the weapon.
"Don't."
Claire stared at her sister.
"You followed me."
Vanessa's hand trembled.
"You forced me to."
"No one forced you to do anything."
Grant watched Vanessa carefully.
"Put the gun down."
"Stay out of this."
"You are standing in my family's house pointing a gun at my father."
Vanessa laughed.
"Your family's house. Your family's money. Your family's secrets. Everything always belongs to Whitmores."
Claire stepped forward.
"Vanessa."
"Shut up."
"You don't want to do this."
"You don't know what I want."
"I know exactly what Mom made you believe."
Vanessa's jaw tightened.
"Don't say her name."
Grant slowly moved closer to the desk.
The phone in his pocket was recording.
He needed Vanessa talking.
Claire understood before he said anything.
She continued.
"Mom turned us against each other."
"She protected us."
"She used us."
"She saved you."
"She drugged me."
Vanessa's eyes flashed.
"Because you were hysterical."
"I was sixteen and had watched a woman get attacked."
Charles whispered, "Elizabeth."
Claire nodded.
Grant looked at her.
"You saw what happened?"
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
"Yes."
Vanessa shouted, "She's lying."
Claire did not look away from Grant.
"I was waiting outside the estate that night. Mom told me Elizabeth was going to help us leave town."
"Why?"
"Because your grandfather discovered Mom had copied financial records."
Grant glanced at the ledgers.
Claire continued.
"Elizabeth arrived. Your grandmother Eleanor was already here."
Charles flinched.
"What happened?"
"They argued."
"About the money?"
"About the family."
Claire's voice shook.
"Eleanor begged Elizabeth not to expose the accounts. She said Charles would lose everything. You children would lose everything."
Charles stared at the floor.
Grant felt anger and grief colliding.
"Then?"
"Elizabeth refused."
Claire looked toward the window as though seeing the past.
"Your grandfather arrived. He grabbed Elizabeth. Mom tried to stop him. Eleanor tried too."
"Did he kill her?"
Claire shook her head.
"No."
Grant exhaled.
"Then what happened?"
"They fought near the driveway. Elizabeth got into her car."
Charles whispered, "The ravine."
Claire nodded.
"Your grandfather followed her in another car."
Grant's hands tightened.
"Did he run her off the road?"
"I don't know. I only know Elizabeth never came back."
Vanessa laughed.
"See? She knows nothing."
Claire turned.
"I know what happened afterward."
Vanessa's face changed.
"Claire."
"Mom came back covered in blood."
Thomas had said the same thing.
Claire continued.
"She told Eleanor that Elizabeth was dead."
Charles closed his eyes.
"Eleanor believed her."
"Yes."
Grant stared at Claire.
"But Elizabeth's body was never found."
"No."
"Then why did Marianne say she was dead?"
Claire looked at Vanessa.
"Because Mom found Elizabeth alive."
Silence filled the room.
Grant barely breathed.
"Where?"
"Near the river."
Charles stepped forward.
"She survived?"
Claire nodded.
"For a while."
Vanessa's weapon lowered slightly.
Claire continued.
"Elizabeth was badly injured. Mom hid her."
"Why?"
"At first, to protect her from your grandfather."
"At first?"
Claire swallowed.
"Then Mom learned about the trust."
Grant understood.
"Eighty million dollars."
Claire nodded.
"Elizabeth was pregnant. The trust would eventually belong to her child."
Charles looked stunned.
"Marianne wanted it."
"She wanted a way out."
Claire's expression hardened.
"Then wanting a way out became wanting everything."
Grant thought of the forged identity.
"She made you become Elizabeth."
"Yes."
"Why you?"
"Because I resembled her enough for old photographs and low quality documents. Mom dyed my hair. Changed my birth records. Forced me to practice Elizabeth's signature."
"Where was the real Elizabeth?"
Claire began crying.
"In a private house Mom rented in Vermont."
Charles fell into a chair.
"How long?"
"Almost eleven months."
Grant felt sick.
"Elizabeth was alive for eleven months?"
Claire nodded.
"And pregnant?"
"Yes."
"What happened to the baby?"
Claire looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa raised the pistol again.
"Stop talking."
Grant instantly understood where the story was going.
"Vanessa."
She shook her head.
"Don't."
Claire whispered, "She deserves to know."
Vanessa shouted, "No."
Grant looked between them.
"Vanessa was the baby."
Claire closed her eyes.
Vanessa's face collapsed.
Grant stared at the woman he had almost married.
"No."
Claire nodded.
"Vanessa Cole was not Marianne's biological daughter."
Vanessa began shaking.
"Shut up."
"She was Elizabeth's."
Grant felt the entire mystery reorganize itself.
The trust.
Vanessa's obsession with the pendant.
Her connection to the Whitmore family.
Her fear.
"You are Elizabeth Whitmore's daughter."
Vanessa screamed, "I said shut up."
The gun discharged.
The sound exploded through the study.
Grant threw himself toward Claire.
The bullet struck the wall.
Plaster shattered.
Charles knocked the weapon from Vanessa's hand.
It skidded beneath the desk.
Vanessa stood frozen.
No one moved.
May you like
Then Claire said the sentence that changed everything again.
"Vanessa isn't Elizabeth's only child."
