Chapter 10 - Six Hours
Chloe wanted to pay.
Claire wanted answers.
Agent Sloan wanted everyone to stop touching their phones.
The kidnappers demanded four million dollars.
Not from Claire personally.
From Morgan Industrial.
That detail mattered.
"They know the company," Sloan said.
Claire nodded.
"They know the accounts."
"They may be connected to the fraud."
Chloe paced the conference room.
"Just pay them."
Sloan looked at her.
"That's not your decision."
"He's going to die."
Claire stared at her sister.
Three days earlier, hearing Chloe speak about Julian with that kind of desperation would have destroyed her.
Now it simply clarified the truth.
Whatever Julian had told Chloe, she loved him.
Claire no longer did.
That realization brought unexpected relief.
She wasn't fighting to save her marriage.
She was fighting to uncover what had been done to her company and her family.
At noon, another video arrived.
Julian looked into the camera.
"Claire."
He coughed.
"If you're seeing this, don't give them anything."
A man's voice behind the camera said, "Tell her."
Julian shook his head.
The unseen man struck him.
Chloe sobbed.
Claire didn't move.
Julian lifted his face.
"They want the Vale files."
Claire looked at Sloan.
The Vale files.
Not money.
The four-million-dollar ransom was theater.
"Tell Daniel," Julian said, "I did what he asked."
The video ended.
Sloan leaned forward.
"Daniel is alive."
Claire nodded.
"And Julian thinks you can contact him."
"I can't."
"Maybe the locker was a communication method."
Claire remembered the key.
Bellamy House.
Daniel had controlled what she discovered.
Maybe he was still controlling it.
They returned to locker 317 under surveillance.
Inside was another envelope.
Claire opened it.
A phone.
It rang immediately.
She answered.
"Daniel?"
Silence.
Then a man's voice.
"Hello, Claire."
"Where's Julian?"
"Not with me."
"Who has him?"
"The people who killed my father."
Claire closed her eyes.
"Who?"
"You already know one of them."
"No, I don't."
"Yes, you do."
"Tell me."
Daniel was silent.
Then he said, "Ask Robert why he lied about Gerald Cross."
"My father said Gerald was dead."
"Exactly."
The call ended.
Claire turned toward Robert.
Her father had followed them despite Sloan's objections.
His face was white.
Claire stared at him.
"Dad."
Robert didn't answer.
"Gerald Cross is alive?"
Robert sat heavily on a bench.
"Yes."
Claire felt something inside her collapse.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Why did you lie?"
"Because I was afraid."
"Of Gerald?"
Robert looked at her.
"No."
"Then who?"
May you like
Robert whispered a name Claire hadn't heard since childhood.
"Your grandfather."
