Chapter 6 - the bruise beneath the bracelet)
Claire had eleven days until the wedding.
Eleven days to discover whether she was engaged to a murderer.
Eleven days to identify an anonymous source who seemed able to follow her every movement.
And eleven days to decide whether Charles Mercer was protecting Laura Bennett or helping hunt her.
She stopped trying to solve everything at once.
Instead she began building a timeline.
Thomas met Charles six days before his death.
Vivian and Charles boarded Thomas’s boat the night before he died.
Ethan’s car crossed toward the marina hours later.
Thomas died.
The marina camera footage vanished.
Laura remained hidden.
Then someone resurrected evidence eighteen months later, immediately before Claire’s wedding.
Why?
That question bothered her more than anything.
If someone wanted justice for Thomas, why wait?
Mara offered the answer without knowing the question.
“Maybe the wedding is the deadline.”
Claire looked up from the conference room table.
“What?”
“You’ve been staring at the same calendar for five minutes.”
Claire turned it toward her.
“The trust restructuring only becomes useful after marriage.”
Mara read the documents.
“So whoever is doing this has to either stop the wedding or control what happens immediately afterward.”
Claire nodded.
“Which means everything happening now is because time is running out.”
Mara leaned back.
“You’re still going through with it?”
“The ceremony.”
“That sounds like the same thing.”
“It isn’t.”
Claire had made a decision.
She would not cancel.
Not yet.
If Ethan believed the wedding was still happening, he would continue the plan.
And people who believed they were winning became careless.
Reyes hated the idea.
“This isn’t a television show.”
“I know.”
“You could get hurt.”
“I already have.”
She showed him the wrist bruise.
His expression darkened.
“Did Ethan do that?”
“Yes.”
“You should file a report.”
“Not yet.”
“Claire.”
“If he thinks I’m leaving, he changes everything.”
Reyes paced.
“You are asking me to watch you knowingly stay near a man who assaulted you.”
“I’m asking you to help me expose him before another person disappears.”
Reyes stopped.
That evening, Claire wore a long sleeved dress to dinner with Vivian.
The older woman noticed anyway.
Vivian always noticed weakness.
“What happened to your wrist?”
Claire covered the bruise with a bracelet.
“I hit the bathroom door.”
Vivian smiled.
“Clumsy.”
Claire smiled back.
Ethan watched both of them.
Dinner was held at Blackwood House with the pastor who would perform the ceremony.
Vivian behaved like a gracious philanthropist.
Ethan was charming.
Claire laughed at the right moments.
Nobody would have guessed that she had arranged for a private security consultant to install three hidden recording devices in her bouquet, handbag, and wedding dressing room.
Nobody except the anonymous source.
At 10:13 p.m. the burner phone buzzed.
Nice bracelet.
Claire looked around.
She was alone in the guest bathroom.
Her blood ran cold.
The source could see her.
She checked the mirror.
Vent.
Light fixture.
Smoke detector.
She found nothing.
She typed.
Where are you?
No response.
Who are you?
Nothing.
She took off the bracelet.
Another message arrived.
Do not hide what Ethan did.
Claire stared at it.
You knew he hurt me?
Yes.
How?
Because he did the same thing before.
Claire’s breathing slowed.
To whom?
Three dots appeared.
Then vanished.
Again.
Finally a name.
Natalie Pierce.
Claire searched immediately.
Natalie Pierce had dated Ethan four years earlier.
The relationship had never been public.
Claire found photographs buried in society pages.
Then Natalie disappeared from social media.
No death.
No news.
Nothing.
Mara located an address in Boston.
Claire called.
Disconnected.
Reyes checked databases.
Natalie had legally changed her name two years earlier.
He refused to give Claire the new identity.
“Protection.”
“From whom?”
“Sealed domestic violence proceeding.”
Claire went quiet.
“Ethan?”
“The record is sealed.”
“That means yes.”
“It means I can’t tell you.”
The next morning, Claire’s office receptionist called.
“There’s a woman here to see you.”
“Name?”
“She won’t give one.”
Claire went downstairs.
A woman stood near the windows wearing a beige coat and oversized sunglasses.
Early thirties.
Blonde.
Claire knew before she spoke.
“Natalie?”
The woman flinched.
“Don’t say my name loudly.”
They went upstairs.
Natalie refused coffee.
She kept checking the door.
“You’re marrying him Saturday after next.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m not really”
“Don’t even show up.”
Claire studied her.
“What did he do to you?”
Natalie looked at her own hands.
“At first, nothing.”
That answer frightened Claire most.
“He was perfect for almost a year. Then he started deciding who I could see. What I could wear. Whether my friends were disrespectful to him. He never called it control.”
“What did he call it?”
“Love.”
Claire swallowed.
Natalie continued.
“The first time he grabbed me, he cried afterward. The second time, he bought me a bracelet. The third time, his mother told me I was provoking him.”
Claire looked at her own bracelet.
Natalie noticed.
Her expression changed.
“He gave you jewelry too.”
Claire nodded.
Natalie laughed without humor.
“Of course.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Because he put me in the hospital.”
Claire’s chest tightened.
Natalie looked directly at her.
“And because I heard him talking to Vivian about marrying someone more useful.”
Claire went still.
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
“Before he knew me.”
“Yes.”
“What did Vivian say?”
Natalie closed her eyes.
“She said Thomas Morgan had a daughter.”
Claire felt the room tilt.
“They planned this before Ethan met me.”
Natalie nodded.
“I didn’t know your name then. I only understood later.”
“Did you report them?”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“Charles Mercer paid for my attorney.”
Claire frowned.
Natalie noticed.
“You thought he was one of them.”
“I don’t know what he is.”
“He told me to disappear.”
“Why?”
“He said Ethan would never stop if I embarrassed the family publicly.”
Claire thought of Charles in Room 814.
Leave Ethan. Leave the city.
Same advice.
Natalie reached into her purse.
She removed a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Ethan standing outside a restaurant.
Beside him was Claire’s father.
Date stamped twelve days before Thomas died.
A third man stood behind them.
Claire recognized Charles.
But there was someone else reflected in the restaurant window.
A woman.
Only part of her face showed.
Claire enlarged it on her phone.
Natalie whispered, “You know her?”
Claire did not.
But she had seen the dress.
The same dark red coat appeared in a photograph found among Vivian’s private gala records.
The coat belonged to a woman named Evelyn Cross.
Claire searched.
Her stomach dropped.
Evelyn Cross was not a Blackwood employee.
She was the chief legal officer of Morgan Urban Development.
Claire’s own company.
The woman had worked beside Claire for eight years.
The woman Claire had trusted with every document concerning her father’s estate.
May you like
Natalie pointed toward the reflection.
“She was also the woman in the hotel room.”
