Chapter 15 - My Father’s Secret
My father, Thomas Bennett, arrived at the bank twenty minutes later.
I had never seen him look afraid of me before.
I placed the photograph on the table.
“Explain.”
He sat down slowly.
“Claire, I can.”
“Start.”
He looked at Rachel, then Officer Brooks.
“Two years ago, Vivian approached me about selling Meridian.”
“You don’t own Meridian.”
“I founded it with you.”
“You left the board.”
“I know.”
“Then why was she talking to you?”
“Because she thought I could influence you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Could you?”
“No.”
“Did you try?”
He looked down.
That was enough.
“You did.”
“I told you to consider the Whitmore offer.”
“You said it was because the market was changing.”
“That was part of it.”
“What was the other part?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Vivian offered to settle the debt from your mother’s treatment.”
My anger disappeared for one stunned second.
My mother had died four years earlier after a long cancer battle.
The bills had nearly destroyed my father financially.
“You took money from her?”
“No.”
“But you considered it.”
He nodded.
I felt tears burn behind my eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was ashamed.”
I pushed the photograph toward him.
“Did you know about Ethan?”
“No.”
“The marriage plan?”
“No.”
“The prenup?”
“No.”
“The drug?”
His head jerked up.
“What drug?”
I believed that reaction.
He truly did not know.
I told him.
By the time I finished, his face had gone gray.
“She tried to drug you?”
“Yes.”
He stood so fast the chair scraped.
“I’ll kill—”
“No.”
He stopped.
“No more family people solving things privately,” I said. “No more threats. No more secret deals. We do this in daylight.”
My father sat down again.
Officer Brooks nodded slightly.
Then Rachel plugged Richard’s flash drive into an isolated police laptop.
Folders appeared.
Payments.
Emails.
Drafts.
Audio files.
One file was dated three days before the wedding.
VIVIAN_MARTIN_FINAL.
Brooks opened it.
Vivian’s voice filled the small room.
“If Claire drinks it, Hart evaluates her upstairs. We keep her away from Ethan for ninety minutes. Martin files the proxy. By the time anyone realizes what happened, Meridian is already locked.”
Martin’s voice answered.
“And if she refuses the champagne?”
Vivian paused.
Then said:
“Ethan drinks from her glass sooner or later. If he goes down instead, we use Plan B.”
Rachel looked at me.
“What was Plan B?”
The recording continued.
May you like
Vivian answered.
“We make Claire look responsible.”
