Chapter 13 - The Competency Plan
Claire did not speak for several seconds.
"Say that again."
Ethan's voice barely carried across the table.
"Vale had a doctor prepared to sign an emergency evaluation. They wanted a record that you were unstable, violent, paranoid."
Claire understood all at once.
The secret cameras.
The staged pressure.
The hidden phone.
Vivian provoking her.
Ethan disabling the visible camera.
"Tonight was supposed to make me look violent."
"Yes."
"Your mother hits me, I fight back, and you call me unstable."
He closed his eyes.
"That was the plan."
Claire's hands went cold.
"And you stood there."
"I thought she'd argue with you. I didn't know about the club."
"You keep trying to reduce your guilt by changing the object in her hand."
He looked at her then.
That hit.
"Who is the doctor?"
"Dr. Marcus Venn."
Officer Nolan, listening through the glass, immediately made a call.
Claire asked, "Was he at the party?"
Ethan nodded.
She remembered a thin man in a navy tuxedo who had introduced himself as a behavioral-health consultant for executive families.
She had thought the description sounded ridiculous.
Now it sounded criminal.
"Where is he?"
"He left before the police arrived."
"Of course."
Ethan leaned forward.
"Claire, Vale controls people with debt. Venn owes him. My mother owes him. I owe him."
"You don't owe him my life."
"I know."
"No. You know now that you got caught."
His face collapsed.
Claire stood.
"One more thing."
He looked up.
"When you dropped to your knees last night and asked me to forgive you - were you sorry?"
"Yes."
"Or were you afraid the camera had everything?"
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Claire nodded.
"That's what I thought."
As she reached the door, Ethan called after her.
"Claire. Vale has someone inside your foundation."
She stopped.
"Who?"
"I don't know the name. Only the initials."
"What initials?"
"L.M."
Claire's heart sank.
Only one senior person at the Bennett Foundation had those initials.
May you like
Lauren Mercer.
Claire's best friend since college.
