Chapter 17 - What Claire Saw
Claire stopped denying it.
She asked to speak with Ethan and Jenna together.
Jenna almost refused.
Then she looked at Lily and said, “I want every lie finished.”
Claire sat behind a conference-room table at the district attorney’s office.
“I saw my father near Daniel’s car the night before the crash,” she said.
Ethan’s hands curled into fists.
“What was he doing?”
“I don’t know. The hood was open. Victor was with him.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I confronted my father the next morning. He told me Daniel had asked him to look at a noise in the engine.”
“Did you believe him?”
Claire’s silence answered.
After Daniel died, Richard told her that if she spoke publicly, police would investigate everyone, including Margaret, and expose the ownership fraud that could collapse the company and destroy thousands of jobs.
“He made silence sound responsible,” Claire said. “I wanted to believe him.”
Jenna stared at her. “And what excuse did you use when you stole my letters?”
Claire flinched.
“There wasn’t one.”
“Say it.”
“I was jealous.”
“Say all of it.”
Claire’s voice broke. “I knew Lily might be Ethan’s. I was afraid if he knew, he would leave me.”
Ethan looked at the woman he had married for less than twenty-four hours.
“You didn’t lose me because Lily existed,” he said. “You lost me because you decided I didn’t deserve the truth.”
Claire nodded through tears.
Then she gave Ortiz one last piece of evidence.
A cloud-storage password.
Victor had made her keep an encrypted backup “in case anything happened.”
The files contained financial records, recorded calls, and photographs.
One audio clip was dated the night before Daniel’s crash.
Richard’s voice was clear.
“He won’t stop digging.”
Victor replied, “Then make sure the car does.”
Silence filled the room.
Claire covered her face.
Ethan felt no victory.
Only grief.
Ortiz closed the laptop.
“We have enough to arrest Victor and Richard.”
Noah entered the room before anyone could respond.
“They found Victor.”
“Where?”
“At Logan.”
“And Richard?”
Noah shook his head.
“Richard took someone with him.”
May you like
He looked at Jenna.
“Your mother.”
