Chapter 5 - Daniel’s Name
Margaret’s face became completely still.
Daniel Hale had been Ethan’s older brother.
He had died three years earlier after a late-night car crash outside Boston.
The family had buried him on a rainy Tuesday and never recovered.
“What happened to Daniel?” Margaret asked.
Claire did not answer.
Ethan turned off the recorder. “Who is the man?”
“I don’t know.”
“It sounds like Victor Lang.” Noah said it quietly.
Victor was Claire’s family attorney.
Diane stood. “That is enough. This reception is over.”
Margaret looked at her. “Sit down, Diane.”
“You don’t order me around.”
“Tonight I do.”
Ethan held up the hotel key card from the case. The logo belonged to the Grand Aster, one of his family’s properties.
Room 1714 was written on the back.
Noah checked his phone. “That room is occupied.”
“By who?”
Noah’s expression tightened. “Victor Lang.”
Claire closed her eyes.
That was enough.
Ethan handed the recorder and flash drives to Noah. “Make copies before we go anywhere.”
Claire grabbed Ethan’s sleeve. “Please. You’re misunderstanding everything.”
“Then explain Daniel.”
“I can’t here.”
“You had no problem discussing my brother on a recording.”
Jenna whispered, “Ethan.”
He turned.
Lily was rubbing her lips.
A red patch had appeared along her chin.
Jenna’s face changed instantly. “She’s allergic to almonds.”
The pastry chef shook her head. “There are no almonds in the cake.”
Lily coughed.
Once.
Twice.
Then she started wheezing.
Jenna shouted for an ambulance.
Ethan lifted Lily from her arms without thinking and ran for the ballroom doors.
Claire stood frozen beside the cake.
The pastry chef stared at her.
Behind them, two servers exchanged a frightened glance. One of them, a college student named Mia, slowly raised her hand. “Mrs. Hale asked us not to touch the lower tier after two o’clock,” she said.
Claire spun toward her. “That is not what I said.”
Mia swallowed. “You said, ‘Nobody cuts that cake until I say so.’ I remember because you made me repeat it.”
Ethan, already halfway to the doors with Lily in his arms, stopped for one second. He looked back at Claire, and the distance between them suddenly felt permanent.
“What?” Claire snapped.
The chef looked at the untouched upper tiers, then at the hole in the lower one.
“The recipe didn’t contain almonds,” she said.
May you like
Her voice dropped.
“But someone added almond extract to the frosting after delivery.”
