Chapter 5
Daniel called while I stood in the hospital corridor.
“I found Claire’s mother.”
“Eleanor Bennett.”
“You knew the name?”
“I saw a photograph.”
“She worked at Calder, Wynn and Kane.”
Victor’s old law firm.
“What position?”
“Legal secretary. Later directly assigned to Victor.”
“How long?”
“Six years.”
“When did she leave?”
“2012.”
Victor had opened Kane Development two months later.
“What happened between those dates?”
“Still searching.”
“Anything involving my father?”
Daniel went quiet.
“Daniel.”
“One of Kane Development’s first investors was Moretti Harbor Holdings.”
My father’s company.
“How much?”
“Eight million.”
I stared through the hospital window.
“Why don’t I remember that?”
“Because it was sold during the portfolio restructuring after Thomas’s first heart attack.”
“Who prepared those documents?”
“Victor Kane.”
There it was.
At the far end of the corridor, Claire stood watching me.
Hospital cardigan.
Pale face.
Barely steady.
Yet her eyes were clear.
“How much do you know?” she asked.
“Your mother worked for Victor.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“My father invested in Victor’s company.”
Her expression changed.
“So you found that too.”
“What happened between them?”
“I knew coming here was a mistake.”
“To the hospital?”
“To your estate.”
“You’ve been there eight months.”
“I thought enough time had passed.”
“Since what?”
She lowered herself into a chair.
“My mother trying to warn your father.”
The words landed like weight.
“About Victor?”
“Yes.”
“What did she find?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“Claire—”
“I don’t.”
The anger in her voice stopped me.
“My mother spent the last years of her life believing ignorance could protect me. She told me fragments. She hid files. She made promises for me. She decided what I was allowed to know.”
She looked at me.
“So forgive me if I’m not interested in letting another powerful man decide he deserves every answer because he asked.”
I sat across from her.
“Then tell me what belongs to you.”
She blinked.
I continued.
“And tell me what I actually need to know to keep Lily safe.”
Her expression softened a fraction.
“My mother kept records from the firm. Contract drafts. Meeting notes. Copies of amendments.”
“Related to Bennett Street?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She believed Victor had changed something in the ownership structure years ago.”
“Illegally?”
“She never said.”
“Did Victor know she kept copies?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He came to see her two weeks before she died.”
“How did she die?”
“Cancer.”
Ordinary.
Cruel.
Nothing conspiratorial about it.
“He brought flowers,” Claire said. “Sat at our kitchen table. Asked whether she still had files from the old firm. Mom told him she had thrown everything away.”
“Had she?”
“No.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
“Because three weeks ago Victor appeared outside Lily’s preschool.”
Every muscle in my shoulders hardened.
Claire noticed.
“He did not touch me.”
“He knew where your daughter went to school.”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He said he remembered my mother. Asked whether she left anything behind.”
“And you?”
“I said no.”
“Did he believe you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because your father was involved.”
“My father may have tried to help your mother.”
“Maybe.”
“You didn’t know whether I would?”
“No.”
“At least you’re direct.”
“That is easier when you’re too tired to be polite.”
A small smile threatened.
Then disappeared.
“Why did Lily recognize Victor?” I asked.
“I showed her his photograph.”
I stared.
“She is three.”
“I told her one thing. If that man ever approaches her when I’m not there, find an adult she trusts.”
“Which led to her calling him the bad man.”
“I may have overcorrected.”
“You think?”
“She remembers simple language.”
I rubbed my jaw.
“Why did she come to me?”
Claire’s expression changed.
“She knows your photograph from the staff office.”
“I know.”
“She also knows this is your house.”
“Yes.”
“She thinks owning a house means you are responsible for fixing everything in it.”
“That is an unreasonable interpretation of real estate.”
“She’s three.”
Claire smiled faintly.
“I told her once that if she ever got lost, she should keep knocking on doors until somebody opened one.”
Something shifted inside me.
I had spent most of my life controlling doors.
Who entered.
Who left.
Which rooms remained locked.
Lily had reduced all of that to a different question.
Would somebody answer?
“Come back to the estate,” I said.
Claire’s face closed immediately.
“No.”
“Not as an employee.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“As someone who needs security.”
May you like
“No.”
I stopped.
