Chapter 8 - what thomas morgan started)
Claire searched her father’s private archives until dawn.
At 4:36 a.m. she found the first proof.
An email from Thomas to Evelyn dated three weeks before Claire met Ethan.
Subject line: Museum seating.
Put Claire beside Ethan Blackwood. Do not make it obvious.
Claire read it five times.
A second email.
Vivian believes Ethan can stabilize the relationship between the companies. Claire may actually like him. Let it happen naturally.
Claire sat back.
Her father had arranged the meeting.
Why?
She continued searching.
Seven years earlier, Morgan Urban Development and Blackwood Holdings had been partners in a massive infrastructure project.
The partnership collapsed.
Publicly, the reason was market conditions.
Privately, Thomas had accused Blackwood of using hidden subcontractors and shell vendors to inflate costs.
Laura Bennett had discovered the transactions.
Thomas wanted to expose Vivian.
But doing so would have destroyed both corporations and thousands of jobs.
Then Laura disappeared.
Thomas backed away.
Years later, according to his emails, Vivian approached him with a proposal.
End the feud.
Combine family interests through the next generation.
Thomas, incredibly, considered it.
Claire found his personal notes.
Ethan may be better than Vivian.
Claire felt sick.
Another entry.
Claire deserves to meet him without inheriting my hatred.
Her father had not pushed her into marriage.
He had arranged an introduction.
Then watched.
For the first year, Thomas seemed cautiously optimistic.
He wrote that Ethan appeared independent from his mother.
That changed.
Nine months before Thomas died, Ethan requested a confidential valuation of the Morgan Heritage Trust.
He used an intermediary.
Thomas discovered it.
Then Ethan began meeting with Charles.
Then Evelyn.
Then Vivian.
Claire opened a recording found in Thomas’s encrypted folder.
Her father’s voice filled the office.
“If Claire marries Ethan now, she may be trapped before she understands what he wants.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“I made the introduction. That responsibility is mine.”
Thomas sounded ashamed.
“I wanted peace with the Blackwoods. Vivian wanted access. I confused the two.”
Another file.
Thomas speaking to someone.
A woman.
Evelyn.
“You help me separate Claire from Ethan.”
Evelyn answered, “If we move too quickly, Vivian will know.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
“Why?”
“Because Laura is alive.”
Silence.
Then Thomas.
“What?”
Claire leaned toward the speaker.
Evelyn continued.
“Charles told me.”
“Where?”
“He won’t say.”
“Why would Charles protect her?”
“Because he helped create the financial structures she discovered. If Vivian goes down, so does he.”
Thomas cursed softly.
“So Charles is protecting himself.”
“Yes.”
“But Laura can prove everything.”
“Yes.”
“Then we find her.”
The recording ended.
Claire understood.
Her father had begun the search.
That search had led to his death.
At seven that morning, Reyes called.
“Evelyn disappeared from the hospital.”
“What?”
“She left before officers arrived to interview her.”
“How?”
“Used another patient’s clothing.”
Claire looked at the files.
“Was she taken?”
“Security video shows her walking alone.”
The burner phone buzzed.
Evelyn is alive.
Claire typed.
Where?
No answer.
Who are you?
The same useless question.
This time, however, a photograph arrived.
A recent photograph.
Claire standing inside her father’s office.
Taken from behind the glass partition.
Minutes earlier.
Claire spun around.
Empty hallway.
She called building security.
“Lock this floor.”
Mara arrived.
They searched offices.
Storage rooms.
Conference rooms.
Nothing.
Then Claire noticed the maintenance closet door.
Slightly open.
Security opened it.
Empty.
On the floor lay an inexpensive mobile phone.
It began ringing.
Claire answered.
No voice at first.
Then a woman spoke.
“You have finally found Thomas’s emails.”
Claire recognized nothing about the voice.
“Who are you?”
“Someone your father trusted.”
“Laura?”
“No.”
“Evelyn?”
A laugh.
“No.”
“Then tell me your name.”
“Not yet.”
Claire gripped the phone.
“You have been watching me.”
“Yes.”
“You sent the marina footage.”
“Yes.”
“The locker.”
“Yes.”
“Room 814.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you had to see Ethan clearly before you could survive him.”
Claire’s anger erupted.
“You could have told me everything.”
“You would not have believed me.”
“You don’t know me.”
“I know exactly how long it took Natalie Pierce to believe.”
Claire went silent.
“You helped Natalie?”
“Yes.”
“Are you protecting women from Ethan?”
A pause.
“I tried.”
“Who are you?”
The woman ignored the question.
“Ethan is going to hurt you before the wedding.”
Claire looked at Mara.
“What?”
“He knows you spoke to Natalie.”
“How?”
“Because Natalie’s new identity was compromised yesterday.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“Where is she?”
“Safe for now.”
“For now?”
“You need to change the wedding plan.”
Claire thought of the church.
The USB.
The recording.
“What wedding plan?”
“Ethan expects you to expose him.”
Claire froze.
The woman continued.
“He knows about the USB.”
“How?”
“Because the recording was placed where you would find it.”
Claire’s mind raced.
“You planted it?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“The person who wants Ethan publicly destroyed before Vivian can stop the marriage.”
Claire whispered, “Why would someone inside their conspiracy want that?”
“Because Ethan is no longer useful.”
A long silence.
Claire remembered Evelyn’s warning.
Do not trust the recording.
“What is missing from the end?”
The woman did not answer.
“The moment Claire signs the papers, we’ll what?”
Silence.
“What comes next?”
Finally the woman spoke.
“We’ll make Ethan disappear.”
Claire felt her blood run cold.
“What?”
“The recording is not evidence of Ethan planning your death.”
“Then what is it?”
“It is evidence that somebody else was planning his.”
The line went dead.
Mara stared at her.
Claire lowered the phone.
At that exact moment the elevator doors opened.
Ethan stepped out.
He looked at the security officers.
Then at Claire.
He smiled.
“Something wrong?”
Claire looked at the man she had spent two years loving.
A man who had lied.
Controlled.
Bruised her.
Targeted her inheritance.
Perhaps helped conceal her father’s death.
And now, apparently, somebody intended to kill him too.
Claire suddenly understood the real problem.
May you like
The wedding was not the end of the conspiracy.
It was the trap where every person involved intended to betray someone else.
