Chapter 6 - The Trap With Her Initials

For ten seconds, Clara heard only the ferry engines behind her.

"Why would he put stolen shares in my name?"

Natalie swallowed. "Because if Harbor was discovered, the paper trail would point to you."

Clara felt cold all over.

"And after the wedding?"

"What story?"

Clara almost laughed.

It was too ugly to be funny.

"You helped him."

"Where?"

"Safe place."

"Charles?"

A black SUV rolled slowly past the terminal.

Natalie stopped talking.

"Do you know that car?" Clara asked.

Natalie's face changed.

"Walk. Now."

They moved toward the ferry entrance.

The SUV stopped.

Two men got out.

Clara's investigators stepped from opposite sides of the terminal.

One of the men saw them and turned back.

The other kept coming.

"Ms. Cross," he called. "Mrs. Sterling wants to speak with you."

"She's not Mrs. Sterling," Clara said.

The man smiled. "Not you."

Natalie went pale.

Olivia.

Natalie grabbed Clara's wrist and pulled her through the turnstile.

"What?"

"The shares."

"What about them?"

"They give CD Holdings eleven percent of Sterling Group."

"Stolen money bought them. I don't want them."

"You may not get to choose."

Clara stared at her.

Natalie finished quietly.

"And Olivia controls eighteen."

By noon, Clara had gone from canceled bride to the largest voting shareholder in Sterling Group.

She hated every second of it.

Martin assembled the facts on a glass board in his office.

CD Holdings held eleven percent, purchased with misappropriated funds and placed in Clara's name.

Olivia held eighteen.

Ethan personally held six.

"Legally," Martin said, "the eleven percent is radioactive. We disclose immediately and seek court guidance."

"Do it."

"Once we do, the board will know everything."

"Good."

Clara's phone rang.

Ethan.

She almost ignored it.

Then she answered.

"Where is Charles Beck?"

"I don't know."

"Wrong opening."

"Clara, listen to me. My mother is losing control."

"I mean the company. She found out about CD Holdings yesterday."

Clara stood very still.

"Yesterday?"

"I was going to fix this after the wedding."

"By blaming me?"

"No! That wasn't the plan."

"Then what was?"

He exhaled hard. "Marry you. Combine our votes. Remove her. Repay Harbor. Clean up the balance sheet before anyone got hurt."

Clara laughed, sharp and stunned. "Before anyone got hurt? My mother spent last night in an emergency room."

"I didn't know Mom would do that."

"You watched."

He had no answer.

Clara's voice lowered. "Did you forge my signature?"

Silence.

"Ethan."

"I authorized the document."

"That's not what I asked."

"I thought you'd sign if I had time to explain."

Clara closed her eyes.

There it was.

Not an apology.

A justification.

Then Ethan said, "I need you to do one thing before you destroy all of us."

"What?"

"Check your father's old company records."

Clara frowned.

"Why?"

"Because Harbor didn't start with my mother."

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He paused.

"It started with Robert Devereux."