Chapter 7 - the woman inside claire’s company)
Evelyn Cross had attended Claire’s engagement party.
She had helped review wedding insurance.
She had sent flowers after Thomas died.
She had stood beside Claire at the funeral and whispered, “Your father trusted you more than anyone.”
Claire remembered crying against her shoulder.
Now she stared through the glass wall of Evelyn’s office and wondered whether the woman had helped kill him.
She did not confront her.
Instead Claire smiled.
At eleven thirty she walked into Evelyn’s office carrying coffee.
“You’re saving my life,” Evelyn said.
Claire set the cup down.
“Wedding chaos.”
“I warned you.”
Evelyn laughed.
She was forty eight, elegant, disciplined, and had worked for Thomas Morgan for nearly fifteen years.
“You still have time to elope.”
Claire sat.
“Actually, I need help with something.”
“Anything.”
“Ethan wants me to sign a post marriage restructuring agreement.”
Evelyn’s face remained perfectly calm.
“I know.”
Claire felt ice move through her.
“You know?”
“Charles sent a courtesy copy two weeks ago.”
Claire forced a laugh.
“He did?”
“Yes. I told him the trust language would require independent review.”
“You didn’t mention it.”
“I assumed you knew.”
Claire watched her.
“What do you think?”
“About the agreement?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn removed her glasses.
“I think you should not sign anything you do not understand.”
A careful answer.
“What if I understand it and still don’t like it?”
“Then don’t sign.”
Claire almost became confused again.
If Evelyn was part of the conspiracy, why advise refusal?
Then she remembered the recording.
The moment Claire signs the papers, we’ll
Perhaps Evelyn wanted different papers signed.
Or perhaps Natalie was wrong.
Claire leaned forward.
“Did Dad ever talk to you about Laura Bennett?”
The smallest pause.
Less than a second.
But Claire saw it.
“Laura Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“Blackwood’s former finance executive?”
“You remember her.”
“Of course.”
“Dad knew her.”
“So did half the financial community.”
“Did he investigate Vivian because of her?”
Evelyn smiled slightly.
“You have been asking interesting questions.”
Claire did not smile.
“My father is dead.”
Evelyn’s expression softened.
“I know.”
“Was he afraid before he died?”
This time the softness looked real.
“Yes.”
Claire had not expected honesty.
“Of whom?”
Evelyn looked at the glass walls.
Then pressed a button that made them opaque.
Claire’s pulse quickened.
“Your father believed someone was trying to gain control of Morgan through you.”
“Ethan.”
“He suspected Ethan.”
“And Vivian.”
“Yes.”
“Charles?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“He never trusted Charles.”
“Did he trust you?”
Pain moved through Evelyn’s face.
“I thought so.”
Claire studied her.
“Where were you the night he died?”
Evelyn did not blink.
“At home.”
“Can anyone confirm that?”
“My husband.”
“Your husband died three years ago.”
The room changed.
Claire had deliberately introduced the false timeline.
Evelyn realized it.
Her husband had died five years earlier.
Not three.
Claire wanted to know whether she would correct it.
She did.
“Five.”
Claire nodded.
“Right.”
Evelyn looked at her for a long time.
“You think I had something to do with Thomas’s death.”
Claire stood.
“I didn’t say that.”
“No.”
Evelyn’s voice became very quiet.
“You didn’t have to.”
Claire left.
Thirty seconds later, Mara called her from another floor.
“She’s moving files.”
Claire had authorized a cybersecurity audit that monitored unusual data activity without opening employee content.
Evelyn had just copied forty seven gigabytes from a restricted legal archive to an encrypted external drive.
Claire called Reyes.
“Now.”
Police could not simply arrest Evelyn for copying company records because she had authorized access.
But Claire could suspend her.
She chose not to.
Instead she followed her.
Evelyn left the office at 4:20.
Claire and Reyes watched from separate cars.
Evelyn drove to the old industrial district.
She parked outside a boarded warehouse.
Claire’s phone vibrated.
Do not follow Evelyn inside.
The anonymous source again.
Claire showed Reyes.
He frowned.
“Whoever this is has eyes on you right now.”
Claire scanned rooftops.
Windows.
Traffic.
Nothing.
Evelyn entered the warehouse.
Reyes called for backup.
Before it arrived, smoke began pouring from a second floor window.
Claire jumped from her car.
“Claire, stay back.”
“Evelyn is inside.”
Reyes grabbed her arm.
“She may have started it.”
A window shattered.
Evelyn appeared.
She was coughing violently.
“Help.”
Reyes ran.
They dragged her outside minutes before flames spread through the roof.
Evelyn clutched Claire’s sleeve.
“He found me.”
“Who?”
Evelyn could barely breathe.
“He knew I was going to tell you.”
“Who?”
A paramedic placed oxygen over her face.
Evelyn grabbed Claire’s hand.
“Your father wasn’t supposed to die.”
Claire went cold.
“What happened?”
Evelyn began coughing.
“Thomas changed the plan.”
“What plan?”
“He was going to expose all of us.”
“All of who?”
Evelyn looked past Claire.
Pure fear filled her eyes.
Claire turned.
A black SUV was parked across the street.
It drove away before Reyes could reach it.
Evelyn whispered through the oxygen mask.
“Don’t trust the recording.”
“What?”
“The hotel recording.”
Claire stared.
“You were there.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“You were the voice?”
“No.”
“Then who was?”
Evelyn opened her eyes again.
“The person who arranged your first meeting with Ethan.”
Claire’s heart pounded.
“That was a museum fundraiser.”
“No.”
Evelyn shook her head weakly.
“It was a recruitment.”
“For what?”
“To make you fall in love with the right man.”
The paramedics lifted her onto a stretcher.
Claire walked beside her.
“Evelyn.”
The doors began closing.
“Who arranged it?”
Evelyn stared at her.
“Your father did.”
The ambulance doors slammed shut.
Claire stood motionless in the street.
For eighteen months she had believed Thomas Morgan distrusted Ethan from the beginning.
May you like
But according to Evelyn, her father had introduced them intentionally.
And that meant the story Claire had been following had been missing its first chapter.
