Chapter 2 - Madison’s Perfect Life
Madison entered without waiting to be invited.
She removed her coat and tossed it over Claire’s dining chair.
“You really need better furniture,” she said, looking around the apartment. “This place is depressing.”
Claire closed the door.
“What do you want?”
Madison held up the champagne bottle.
“I came to make peace.”
“You came because Mom sent you.”
“That too.”
She walked into the kitchen and opened a cabinet.
“There are no champagne glasses.”
“There are glasses.”
“They’re water glasses.”
“They hold liquid.”
Madison rolled her eyes.
She had always moved through Claire’s belongings as if everything belonged to her.
At fourteen, she had borrowed Claire’s laptop and deleted a scholarship essay.
At seventeen, she had taken Claire’s car without permission and crashed it.
At twenty-two, she had used Claire’s identity to apply for a luxury credit card.
Each time, Evelyn had told Claire to stop being possessive.
Each time, Richard had reminded her that family members shared.
Claire placed the blue folder on the counter.
Madison noticed it.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
“That usually means it’s about me.”
Claire almost smiled.
For once, Madison’s instincts were correct.
Madison poured champagne into two water glasses and pushed one toward her sister.
“Here’s the situation,” she said. “Dad’s investors are attending the party. My promotion makes the company look strong. Your birthday doesn’t.”
“My birthday isn’t a company event.”
“Exactly.”
Claire did not touch the glass.
“So my event was taken because Madison Bennett’s promotion is more useful than Claire Bennett’s existence.”
Madison sighed.
“You always make everything sound tragic.”
“You changed my reservation.”
“Mom changed it.”
“You gave her the confirmation number.”
Madison’s eyes flickered.
It was all the answer Claire needed.
“You went through my email.”
“We share the family cloud account.”
“I left that account four years ago.”
Madison shrugged.
“Apparently your old password still works.”
Claire felt something inside her go quiet.
Not break.
Breaking was loud and painful.
This was different.
It was the silence after a machine shut down.
“You accessed my private email,” Claire said.
“Don’t be dramatic.”
“You stole a reservation I paid for.”
“You’ll still be at the party.”
“As what?”
“My sister.”
“The sister whose birthday everyone is pretending doesn’t exist?”
Madison took a drink.
“You know what your problem is? You keep score.”
Claire glanced at the blue folder.
“Yes,” she said. “I recently started.”
Madison laughed.
“You act like you’re some victim, but you’ve always been jealous of me.”
“Jealous?”
“Because people like me.”
“People like the version of you that I finance.”
The smile disappeared from Madison’s face.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means your apartment deposit came from me. Your car payments come from an account I replenish. Your student loan was paid with money I transferred to Dad. Your promotion campaign was rescued by funds I moved into the company.”
Madison’s lips parted.
Then she laughed again, louder this time.
“You think writing a few checks makes you important?”
“I think paying for your life means I’m allowed to stop.”
“You won’t.”
Claire held her gaze.
Madison leaned closer.
“You need us more than we need you.”
There it was.
The foundation of every Bennett family argument.
Claire was difficult.
Claire was cold.
Claire was lucky they tolerated her.
Claire should be grateful.
Claire had spent years proving her worth to people who benefited from convincing her she had none.
Madison put down the glass.
“Look, I’m trying to help you. Come to the party. Smile. Let Dad introduce you to some investors. Maybe one of them will find your spreadsheet thing interesting.”
“My spreadsheet thing?”
“Finance. Numbers. Whatever.”
“I manage risk for a multibillion-dollar investment fund.”
“And I manage a national brand.”
“You manage the social media account for Dad’s company.”
Madison’s expression hardened.
“You always do this.”
“Do what?”
“Try to make me feel stupid.”
“I don’t have to try.”
Madison slapped Claire.
The sound cracked through the apartment.
For one suspended second, neither sister moved.
Madison looked almost surprised by what she had done.
Then her expression shifted into the familiar defensive anger Claire had seen since childhood.
“You pushed me.”
Claire touched her cheek.
“No,” she said softly. “You hit me.”
“You were insulting me.”
“You hit me.”
“Stop saying it like that.”
Claire walked to the front door and opened it.
“Leave.”
Madison stared.
“You’re throwing me out?”
“Yes.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Get out.”
Madison grabbed her coat.
At the doorway, she turned.
“Dad is going to destroy you.”
Claire’s cheek burned.
Her voice did not shake.
“He can try.”
Madison stepped into the hallway.
“You’ll apologize before Friday.”
Claire closed the door.
She waited until the elevator doors opened and shut.
Then she locked every bolt.
Her phone rang immediately.
Richard.
Claire let it ring.
A message arrived.
CALL ME NOW.
Then another.
YOUR SISTER IS CRYING.
Then another.
YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR.
Claire took a photograph of the red mark on her face.
She saved it in a folder labeled EVIDENCE.
At ten-thirty, she received a call from an unknown number.
“Ms. Bennett?” a man asked.
“Yes.”
“My name is Adrian Cole. I represent Westbridge Financial Recovery.”
Claire frowned.
“I don’t know that company.”
“We have been retained regarding a loan associated with Bennett Architectural Group.”
“What loan?”
There was a pause.
“A commercial loan in the amount of one point eight million dollars.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“I’m not an officer of Bennett Architectural Group.”
“Our documents list you as a personal guarantor.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“I never guaranteed a loan.”
“Your electronic signature appears on the agreement.”
Claire looked at the blue folder.
Someone had not only taken her money.
Someone had used her name to borrow nearly two million dollars.
“When was the agreement signed?” she asked.
“March seventeenth of last year.”
Claire knew exactly where she had been that day.
In a hospital.
Sitting beside her grandmother after emergency surgery.
May you like
The lender continued speaking, but Claire heard only one sentence clearly.
“The account is now in default.”
