Chapter 5 - The Locket
The account led to Switzerland.
Not a normal account.
A trust account created seventeen years before Claire's father died.
The beneficiary was Claire.
The co-signer was Grant.
And the legal executor was Michael Mercer.
Claire stared at the documents.
“Why would my father choose Michael?”
Grant answered quietly.
“Because Michael was the only person he trusted outside the family.”
“But Michael disappeared before I met you.”
“Yes.”
“Then how did he know me?”
“He watched over you.”
Claire looked at him.
“What?”
“Your father asked him to.”
She thought of the strange events throughout her childhood.
The neighbor who always seemed to know when she was sick.
The anonymous birthday gifts.
The man who once pulled her away from a speeding car when she was twelve.
Her father had said it was luck.
Maybe it wasn't.
“He protected me.”
“Yes.”
“And now someone has him.”
“Yes.”
Claire sat down.
“I want him back.”
Grant nodded.
“We'll get him.”
She looked at Grant.
“No.”
He frowned.
“We'll get him.”
The distinction mattered.
This time, Claire would not be protected through silence.
She wanted to know everything.
Maya built a plan.
They would pretend Claire had agreed to divorce.
They would allow the enemy to believe the trust was vulnerable.
They would use the locket account to locate the financial network.
And they would use the evidence to force the people behind it into the open.
Amelia contacted them secretly.
She explained she had never been working against Claire.
She had been working undercover for months.
“My father knows something is wrong,” Amelia said.
“Then why was he helping them?”
“He wasn't.”
She looked at Grant.
“Your brother is alive.”
“Where?”
“New Jersey.”
Grant froze.
“That's impossible.”
“He was moved last week.”
Claire looked at Amelia.
“Why help us?”
“Because I owe your father.”
“How?”
“He saved my life.”
Amelia explained.
Years earlier, when she was twenty, her father had arranged for her to marry a businessman she despised.
Claire's father intervened.
He uncovered financial abuse.
He stopped the marriage.
He gave Amelia enough evidence to escape.
She had never forgotten him.
Now she wanted to finish what he began.
They drove to an abandoned printing warehouse.
Michael was inside.
Alive.
Injured.
But conscious.
Grant ran to him.
For several seconds, neither brother spoke.
Then Michael laughed weakly.
“You got old.”
Grant almost cried.
“So did you.”
They embraced.
Claire stood nearby.
Michael looked at her.
“You look just like your mother.”
She smiled through tears.
“You've known me all these years.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because your father asked me not to.”
Everyone kept using that sentence.
Because someone had asked them not to.
As though secrets were kindness.
Claire was done with that.
“What was my father protecting me from?”
Michael looked at Grant.
“From the truth about your mother.”
Claire stopped.
“My mother?”
Michael nodded.
“Your mother wasn't killed in a car accident.”
Claire's breath caught.
She had always believed her mother died when she was ten.
An accident on an icy highway.
Michael continued.
“She was murdered.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“She was going to expose Hartwell.”
Claire's eyes filled.
“Why didn't my father tell me?”
“He couldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because the people who killed her were watching you.”
Claire looked at Grant.
He stared at the floor.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“Everyone knew.”
“Yes.”
“And I knew nothing.”
Grant stepped toward her.
“I wanted you to have one normal life.”
She shook her head.
“You don't get to call ignorance normal.”
He stopped.
“I know.”
Michael looked at the clock.
“They're coming.”
Everyone turned.
“What?”
“Someone followed me.”
Grant reached for his weapon.
Amelia checked the windows.
Maya locked the doors.
Claire stood in the center of the warehouse.
For once, she wasn't afraid.
She was furious.
A black SUV stopped outside.
Then another.
Men stepped out.
Grant looked at Claire.
“Stay behind me.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“Not this time.”
She took the locket from her neck.
She looked at the tiny photograph of her younger self.
“This started before I was old enough to understand it.”
She closed her hand around the locket.
“It ends with me.”
The warehouse doors exploded inward.
Gunfire erupted.
Grant pushed Claire down.
Michael returned fire.
Amelia dragged Maya behind a concrete pillar.
Then someone shouted through the smoke.
“Claire!”
She looked up.
A man stood in the doorway.
He was older.
Gray-haired.
Smiling.
Her father's former attorney.
The man everyone believed was dead.
He looked directly at her.
“Your father should have finished this.”
Claire whispered:
“My father isn't here.”
The man smiled.
“Exactly.”
May you like
He pointed toward Grant.
“But your husband is.”
