Chapter 10 - Claire’s Secret
Claire did not deny the documents.
She sat at the kitchen table with the red folder in front of her, her face drained of color.
“I was twenty years old,” she began. “I had just started working for the Vale Foundation.”
Willa stood across from her.
“What did you do?”
“I processed payments. I did not understand what they were for at first.”
“And when you understood?”
“I copied the records.”
“Why?”
“Because students were being cheated.”
Claire explained that the foundation had maintained a hidden program designed to control scholarships, rankings, competitions, and admissions.
Promising students from influential families were labeled preferred candidates.
Students who threatened those candidates were redirected.
A race result might be altered.
A disciplinary complaint might disappear.
A scholarship score might be reduced.
A medical report might be changed.
“It was not only sports,” Claire said. “It happened in academics, music, student elections, everything.”
“Who was in charge?”
“Richard Vale managed the money. Eleanor handled relationships with families. Margaret Sloan controlled school records.”
“And the blacked-out name?”
Claire’s hands began to tremble.
“The person who created the program.”
“Who?”
Before Claire could answer, someone knocked at the apartment door.
Three slow knocks.
Then two fast ones.
Claire went still.
“What is that?” Willa asked.
“A signal.”
“From whom?”
Claire approached the door but did not open it.
“Who is there?”
A man answered.
“Someone who remembers sixteen years ago.”
Claire looked through the peephole.
Her face changed.
She opened the door.
The man standing outside wore a long dark coat. He appeared to be in his late fifties, with tired eyes and a scar beside his mouth.
Willa recognized his voice immediately.
It was the third voice on the timing-chip recording.
“Dr. Samuel Hart,” Claire whispered.
Willa stared at him.
Hart.
Her surname.
The man looked at her.
“You have your father’s eyes.”
Willa could not breathe.
“My father is dead.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“No,” the man said. “He isn’t.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Willa looked at her mother.
“You told me he died before I was born.”
“I believed he had.”
Samuel entered the apartment.
“I helped create the preferred-candidate system,” he said. “Then I tried to destroy it.”
Willa backed away.
“You authorized the race change.”
“I authorized access to the system.”
“That is the same thing.”
“No. Mercer told me he was collecting evidence. He said he needed to unlock the file to preserve the original result.”
Julian, standing near the window, laughed coldly.
“And you trusted him?”
“I trusted no one. But I needed the system active to trace the command path.”
Willa looked at Claire.
“You knew he was alive?”
“I found out three months ago.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Everyone says that right before they decide my life for me.”
She took her coat and left.
Outside, the wind cut through the street.
Noah followed her.
“Willa.”
She kept walking.
“My mother lied to me for sixteen years.”
“She may have had reasons.”
“So did Victoria. So did Mercer. So did Sloan.”
Noah caught up.
“What are you going to do?”
May you like
Willa looked back at the apartment window.
“I’m going to find out what my father is really hiding.”
