Chapter 16 - The Inheritance Nobody Wanted
Claire threw the folder across the safe room.
“No.”
Thomas said nothing.
Nathan picked it up and opened it.
Inside were school records, psychological evaluations, business aptitude reports, even private notes from Claire’s college professors.
She stared at her father.
“You studied me.”
“We prepared you.”
“You raised me like a project.”
Thomas flinched.
Claire’s anger became something hotter.
“Was Nicholas part of that too?”
Nathan looked at Thomas.
Thomas hesitated.
Claire understood before he spoke.
“Oh my God.”
“Our families encouraged the relationship.”
Nathan’s face hardened. “You arranged our marriage?”
“No. You fell in love on your own.”
“But you put us in the same rooms.”
“Yes.”
Claire laughed, but there was no humor in it.
Every charity gala. Every family dinner. Every introduction.
Manipulated.
Nathan closed the folder.
“Who is attacking the house?”
Thomas looked at the security monitor.
“Not Raymond. He’s in federal custody.”
Marcus’s voice came through Nathan’s phone.
“I know who.”
They put him on speaker.
Marcus sounded breathless.
“Pike disappeared from police custody twenty minutes ago.”
Claire frowned. “Pike was arrested?”
“Torres picked him up after the pump station.”
Nathan said, “And he escaped?”
“Someone inside the department walked him out.”
Thomas swore.
Nathan looked at him. “What?”
“Pike doesn’t work for Raymond.”
Claire stared.
Thomas said, “He works for the old guard. The original members who think the Circle belongs to them.”
Marcus added, “They’re moving tonight.”
“Moving what?” Claire asked.
There was a pause.
Then Marcus said, “Everything. Accounts. evidence. people. They’re going to burn the network before the FBI can seize it.”
Thomas opened another cabinet and removed an old brass key.
“Then we need the archive.”
Nathan frowned. “What archive?”
May you like
Thomas handed Claire the key.
“The one hidden under Nicholas’s grave.”
