CHAP 4 — THE WOMAN WHO SOLD HER
Claire arrived at Briarwood shortly after midnight.
She did not come willingly.
Evelyn's investigator found her at a hotel near the airport, checked in under another name with a flight booked for Montreal at six in the morning.
Olivia waited in the library.
Jonathan wanted to be present.
Olivia refused.
“This is mine.”
Her father hesitated, then left.
Claire entered wearing jeans, a gray coat, and no makeup.
She looked fifteen years older than she had at Christmas.
Her eyes went immediately to the photographs arranged on the coffee table.
“You went through his things.”
Olivia almost smiled.
“That's your opening line?”
Claire sat.
“I can explain.”
“I hope so.”
Nothing happened for several seconds.
The fire cracked behind them.
Olivia remembered summers at Lake George.
Matching bicycles.
Claire hiding beneath Olivia's blankets after her parents divorced.
Eleanor Whitmore paying Claire's college tuition without ever mentioning it.
“How much?”
Olivia asked.
Claire frowned.
“How much did he pay you?”
Claire looked away.
“Three hundred thousand.”
Olivia expected anger.
Instead she felt something worse.
Embarrassment.
For Claire.
“For what?”
“Information.”
“What information?”
“Your birthday transfer. Trust provisions. Board relationships.”
“You had access to that?”
Claire swallowed.
“I worked with Aunt Eleanor's archive committee.”
Olivia closed her eyes.
Of course.
After Eleanor died, Claire had volunteered for years to help catalog her papers.
Olivia had considered it an act of love.
“When did Sebastian approach you?”
“He didn't.”
Olivia opened her eyes.
Claire looked at the floor.
“I approached him.”
That hurt.
More than the money.
More than the kiss.
“Why?”
Claire laughed once, bitterly.
“Because people like you don't know what it's like to spend your whole life standing beside someone who never has to be afraid.”
Olivia stared.
Claire's resentment came out slowly.
Then all at once.
Eleanor paid for Claire's education.
Jonathan offered her jobs.
Olivia included her in every holiday.
But Claire had experienced each act as charity.
She had watched Olivia marry a successful man.
Watched her inherit.
Watched doors open.
Sebastian noticed the resentment.
He fed it.
Then weaponized it.
“He told me the merger would make us both rich.”
“Us?”
Claire nodded.
“He said when the divorce was final, he would create a consulting company for me.”
“And Camille?”
Claire's expression changed.
Olivia understood.
Claire had not known.
“You thought you were the woman.”
Claire's eyes filled.
Olivia almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
“How many of Sebastian's women believed they were the only one?”
Claire whispered, “I don't know.”
Olivia gathered the photographs.
“You lied in a sworn statement.”
“I can withdraw it.”
“You will.”
“He'll destroy me.”
Olivia leaned forward.
“No, Claire. You made decisions. You get to live inside them.”
Claire wiped her face.
“I can help you.”
“How?”
Claire looked toward the door.
“Sebastian didn't just prepare a capacity challenge.”
Olivia waited.
“He has someone inside your father's company.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Then what do you know?”
“Every time Jonathan's legal team prepared something, Sebastian knew before you did.”
Olivia went still.
“How?”
“I heard him talking about a source. He called them Lighthouse.”
A strange name.
Meaningless.
Maybe.
Claire reached inside her purse.
Olivia tensed.
Claire removed a flash drive.
“I copied this from Sebastian's office three weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
Against Sebastian.
Claire had never trusted him completely.
That, somehow, did not make Olivia feel better.
“What is it?”
“Emails. Schedules. Payments.”
Olivia did not touch the drive.
“Why give it to me now?”
Claire looked at the photographs.
“Because he was never going to choose me.”
Olivia stood.
“No.”
Claire looked up.
Olivia's voice hardened.
“Don't help me because he rejected you.”
She pushed the flash drive back toward Claire.
“Help me because you lied.”
Claire stared at it.
Then at Olivia.
After a long moment, she pushed it across the table again.
“This is me trying.”
Olivia took it.
Evelyn's forensic team examined the drive before opening anything.
By four in the morning, they found a spreadsheet.
Payments.
Shell companies.
Consulting fees.
One recipient appeared repeatedly.
LIGHTHOUSE ADVISORY LLC.
Total payments over eighteen months:
$4.8 million.
The registered address belonged to a law office.
The beneficial owner was hidden.
But one email included a forwarded calendar invitation.
It had originally been sent from inside Whitmore Holdings.
Evelyn zoomed in.
The sender address appeared.
Jonathan entered the room moments later.
Olivia looked at him.
“Dad.”
He saw her face.
“What?”
Olivia turned the laptop.
The leaked calendar invitation had been sent by Daniel Whitmore.
Jonathan's younger brother.
Olivia's uncle.
May you like
Vice chairman of Whitmore Holdings.
The man scheduled to stand beside her when she took control on Friday.
