Chapter 6 - The Photograph in the File
Claire read the message three times.
“My mother died when I was a baby.”
Ethan took the phone. “Who knows you’re reviewing this trial?”
“My supervisor. Ryan. Vanessa. Whoever burned the records room.”
“And your mother?”
“Her name was Lydia Bennett. She was a pharmacy technician in Akron. Car accident, 1994.”
Ethan’s expression changed slightly.
“What?”
“Nothing yet.”
“I hate that sentence.”
That evening, Claire searched every box she had brought from Ohio. At the bottom of a dented tin, she found the few things her adoptive father had saved after Lydia’s death: a hospital bracelet, two photographs, and a folded newspaper clipping.
The clipping showed a younger woman standing outside a laboratory beneath the headline: ASHFORD PHARMA SCIENTIST QUESTIONS TRIAL SAFETY.
The woman looked almost exactly like Claire.
The name beneath the photo was not Lydia Bennett.
It was Dr. Amelia Ashford.
Claire sat on the floor.
Ethan crouched beside her. “Ashford Pharmaceutical.”
“I know the name.” Everyone in medicine did. Ashford had once been one of the largest privately held pharmaceutical companies in America before a catastrophic scandal broke the family apart.
Claire unfolded the hospital bracelet.
BABY GIRL ASHFORD.
Her hands began to shake.
“No.”
Ethan did not touch her. He had learned quickly that when Claire was afraid, space felt safer than comfort.
She called the only father she had ever known.
Thomas Bennett answered on the third ring.
“Dad, why does my hospital bracelet say Ashford?”
Silence.
Claire stood. “Dad?”
His voice cracked. “I hoped you’d never have to ask.”
Every sound in the room disappeared.
“Am I adopted?”
“Yes.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Who was my mother?”
“Amelia Ashford.”
“And Lydia?”
“My sister. She raised you after Amelia disappeared.”
Claire could barely breathe. “Disappeared?”
Thomas whispered, “Claire, your mother didn’t die in an accident.”
A hard knock struck the penthouse door.
Security moved instantly.
Thomas spoke faster. “If anyone from Ashford finds you, do not tell them what Lydia gave me.”
“What did she give you?”
The line went dead.
Then Ethan’s security chief entered carrying a courier envelope.
Inside was a photograph of Thomas Bennett leaving his house that morning.
May you like
Across his face, someone had written one word in red ink.
FOUND.
