Chapter 9: The Counterattack
Claire's fingers moved across the keyboard.
She wasn't shaking anymore.
The fear was still there.
But it had become something colder.
Focus.
Daniel watched the encrypted interface.
“You have to authorize the counter-transfer manually.”
“Where?”
“Second window.”
Claire opened it.
A security question appeared.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST COMPANY YOU BUILT?
Claire stared.
She knew the answer.
Not Sterling Crest.
Not the empire everyone knew.
The answer was a small company she had created in college with three thousand dollars and a borrowed laptop.
“Bennett Analytics.”
She typed it.
The system accepted it.
SECOND QUESTION.
WHO TAUGHT YOU TO NEVER TRUST A BALANCE SHEET?
Claire looked at John.
“My father.”
John smiled faintly.
“Correct.”
The system opened.
A map appeared.
Sterling Crest's money was scattered across twelve accounts.
Claire began pulling it back.
One account.
Two.
Five.
Nine.
The men upstairs fired again.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Daniel looked toward the stairwell.
“We need to move.”
“Not yet.”
“Claire—”
“One more.”
She opened the final account.
The money was sitting there.
Twenty-six million dollars.
But beside it was another file.
BENEFICIARY: CAROLINE BENNETT.
Claire stared.
Her mother's name appeared beside a trust established nineteen years earlier.
John's voice was barely audible.
“That was the money.”
Claire looked at him.
“The twenty-three million.”
He nodded.
“You said it was in my name.”
“It was.”
“But my mother was the beneficiary?”
“Temporarily.”
Claire's eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
John looked away.
“Because your mother was trying to protect you.”
Claire went still.
“What?”
Before John could answer, the basement door slammed open.
Three armed men appeared.
Daniel moved first.
He pulled Claire behind a concrete support column.
John grabbed an old rifle from beneath the stairs.
The first man stepped forward.
“Mr. Bennett.”
John raised the rifle.
“You're too late.”
The man smiled.
“Not for Marcus.”
A gunshot exploded.
John fired back.
The attacker dropped.
The other two retreated.
Daniel looked at Claire.
“Now.”
They ran through a narrow service tunnel behind the basement.
John followed.
They emerged behind the farmhouse.
A black SUV was waiting.
Daniel opened the rear door.
“Go!”
Claire climbed in.
John followed.
As the SUV accelerated, Claire looked back.
The farmhouse was burning.
She watched the flames swallow the place where she had finally found her father.
She didn't cry.
She couldn't.
There were too many unanswered questions.
Twenty minutes later, Daniel's phone rang.
He listened.
Then looked at Claire.
“It's Ethan.”
Claire held out her hand.
“Give me the phone.”
Daniel hesitated.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
He handed it over.
Claire answered.
“Ethan.”
His breathing was uneven.
“Claire.”
“You're alive.”
“For now.”
She said nothing.
“I didn't know they were going to kill you.”
“You didn't know?”
“No.”
“You gave them access to my company.”
“I was trying to fix it.”
“You changed the locks on my house.”
Silence.
“I know.”
“You replaced me with Chloe.”
“I was scared.”
Claire's voice remained calm.
“You were greedy.”
“I loved you.”
“No.”
Ethan's breathing stopped.
“You loved what you thought I was.”
“That isn't true.”
“You knew who I was three years ago.”
Silence.
Claire closed her eyes.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Marcus showed me the documents.”
“And you stayed.”
“I couldn't leave.”
“You could have.”
“I tried.”
“Not hard enough.”
Ethan's voice cracked.
“Chloe found out Marcus wanted to destroy you. She said if I didn't cooperate, he'd come after you.”
Claire's expression hardened.
“So you sacrificed me to save yourself.”
“No.”
“That's exactly what you did.”
Ethan said nothing.
Then he whispered:
“Chloe isn't working for Marcus anymore.”
Claire frowned.
“What?”
“She stole something from him.”
“What did she steal?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why call me?”
“Because she contacted me before she disappeared.”
Claire waited.
“She said your mother knows where the original Harbor files are.”
Claire's grip tightened around the phone.
“Where?”
“She said…”
Ethan stopped.
“Say it.”
“She said the files were hidden under the first house your father ever bought for your mother.”
Claire's mind raced.
Her childhood home.
She remembered it.
A small house outside Austin.
The house she hadn't visited in eighteen years.
Ethan continued.
“And Claire?”
“What?”
“Chloe told me something else.”
“What?”
“She said Marcus isn't the person who started this.”
Claire's blood went cold.
“Then who did?”
Ethan whispered:
“Your mother.”
The line went dead.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Daniel said quietly:
“Claire…”
She looked out the window.
“Turn the car around.”
“To where?”
“Austin.”
John stared at her.
“You can't go there.”
May you like
Claire met his eyes.
“That's exactly why I'm going.”
