Chapter 2 - The Mistress Who Knew Too MuchClaire remained in the hospital for twelve days.
During those twelve days, Nathan never entered her room without permission.
Sometimes she allowed him in.
Sometimes she didn't.
He accepted both.
The babies remained in the NICU.
Their names were Oliver and Grace.
Claire had chosen them before the birth.
Nathan had never known.
That realization hurt more than he expected.
One afternoon, he sat beside the incubators when Dr. Carter approached.
“They're improving.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Both?”
“Yes.”
“Claire?”
“Improving too.”
He nodded.
“Can I take them home when they're discharged?”
“They're Claire's children too.”
Nathan looked confused.
“Of course.”
Dr. Carter's expression was sharp.
“Then start acting like it.”
He lowered his eyes.
“I deserve that.”
“Yes.”
She walked away.
Claire watched through the glass.
She could see Nathan with the babies.
For the first time, she understood something.
He loved them.
But love was not the same as loyalty.
And forgiveness was not the same as forgetting.
When she was finally discharged, Nathan arranged a private medical suite at the Whitmore estate.
Claire refused.
“I want our old house.”
Nathan agreed.
It was the first boundary she had set that he did not argue with.
For the next several weeks, they lived under the same roof like strangers.
Nathan slept in the guest room.
Claire stayed with the twins.
He helped at night.
He learned how to sterilize bottles.
He changed diapers.
He walked Grace around at three in the morning.
He sang terribly to Oliver.
Claire watched quietly.
One morning, she found Nathan asleep in a chair with Grace resting against his chest.
He had a burp cloth over one shoulder.
His expensive watch lay on the floor.
For a moment, he looked ordinary.
Claire pulled a blanket over him.
Then she walked away.
She wasn't forgiving him.
Not yet.
But she was beginning to see the father he could have been.
Meanwhile, Vanessa began dismantling him.
She leaked information to the press.
Rumors spread.
Nathan Whitmore's marriage was unstable.
Nathan Whitmore was planning a divorce.
Nathan Whitmore's wife had suffered a medical crisis caused by stress.
The board became nervous.
Investors started asking questions.
Then a story appeared.
WHITMORE TECHNOLOGIES EXECUTIVE ACCUSED OF DIVERTING COMPANY FUNDS TO MYSTERY WOMAN.
The mystery woman was Vanessa.
The implication was devastating.
Nathan was furious.
He called the company lawyer.
“Who leaked this?”
“We're investigating.”
“Investigate faster.”
There was another problem.
Forty-eight million dollars had disappeared from one of the company's subsidiary accounts.
Nathan had not authorized it.
The transaction had been executed using his private digital signature.
He stared at the screen.
“I didn't do this.”
The attorney nodded.
“We believe your credentials were compromised.”
“By whom?”
“We don't know.”
Nathan immediately thought of Vanessa.
But suspicion wasn't proof.
Then Claire walked into the office.
“What happened?”
He turned the monitor toward her.
She read the transaction.
“Could she have done this?”
“Yes.”
“Can you prove it?”
“No.”
Claire looked at him.
“Then don't accuse her.”
He stared.
She continued.
“That's something you should have learned before you destroyed our marriage.”
Nathan accepted the blow.
“You're right.”
Claire started to leave.
“Claire?”
She turned.
“Thank you.”
She paused.
“For what?”
“For helping.”
Claire looked at him.
“I’m helping the company.”
“You're helping me.”
She didn't answer.
That evening, a stranger arrived at the estate.
An elderly woman named Margaret Sloan.
She asked for Claire.
“I worked with your mother.”
Claire frowned.
“My mother?”
Margaret nodded.
“She asked me to find you if something happened.”
Claire's heart raced.
Her mother had died six years earlier.
“She never mentioned you.”
“She was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
Margaret looked toward Nathan.
“The same people who are targeting your husband now.”
Nathan became alert.
“What people?”
Margaret handed Claire an envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Claire's mother stood beside another woman.
That woman was Vanessa Hale.
Claire stared.
“When was this?”
“Seven years ago.”
Nathan's face changed.
Vanessa had told him she came from a wealthy family in Chicago.
She had said nothing about Claire's mother.
Margaret continued.
“Your mother was investigating financial fraud.”
“By whom?”
“Whitmore Technologies.”
Nathan froze.
“My company?”
“Not your company.”
She looked at him.
“Your father.”
Nathan's expression hardened.
His father had been dead for ten years.
“What did he do?”
Margaret shook her head.
“He wasn't the mastermind.”
“Who was?”
Margaret whispered,
“Your uncle.”
Nathan's breathing stopped.
“My uncle Daniel?”
“Yes.”
Daniel Whitmore had supposedly died in a boating accident.
But Margaret had seen him alive seven years later.
She had been afraid to speak.
Until now.
Claire looked at the photograph again.
Vanessa stood beside Daniel.
Suddenly, her affair with Nathan looked less like a romance.
It looked like an operation.
Claire looked at Nathan.
“She didn't just want you.”
“No.”
“She wanted something from you.”
Nathan nodded.
And then the truth became obvious.
May you like
Vanessa had been targeting him before she ever entered the company.
And if Daniel was alive, the woman who had laughed while Claire died had been part of a plan much larger than an affair.
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