Chapter 4 - The Last Conversation With Claire
Ethan stood in the middle of his office, unable to process what he had just heard.
Natalie had been there.
The night Claire died.
The night he received the call that destroyed his entire world.
For five years, he had replayed that night in his mind.
The rain.
The flashing lights.
The hospital hallway.
The doctor’s expression.
The sentence that changed everything.
“We’re sorry.”
He remembered holding Sophie in his arms afterward.
A three-year-old child who kept asking where Mommy was.
A child who waited by the front door for weeks.
A child who believed every car stopping outside meant Claire was coming home.
And now Natalie was standing in front of him, saying she had been there.
“Tell me everything.”
His voice was calm.
But Natalie could hear the anger underneath.
She looked toward the broken music box.
Then toward the letter.
“She contacted me two weeks before she died.”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because she discovered something about the Vale family.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s the truth.”
Natalie walked slowly around the room.
“Claire wasn’t investigating your company.”
Ethan frowned.
“Then what?”
“She was investigating your father.”
The room became silent.
“My father has been dead for eight years.”
“I know.”
Natalie looked at him.
“That’s why everyone believed he couldn’t be involved.”
Ethan felt a chill.
“What did she find?”
Natalie hesitated.
Then she answered.
“Your father didn’t die when people thought he did.”
Ethan stared.
“What?”
“Richard Vale disappeared.”
“No.”
“You were told he died.”
“I attended his funeral.”
“Yes.”
Natalie looked at him.
“A funeral with a closed casket.”
Ethan said nothing.
Because suddenly he remembered.
The strange details.
The missing medical records.
The rushed arrangements.
The way his mother refused to talk about that week.
At the time, he had accepted it.
Grief made people do strange things.
But now…
everything felt different.
“Why would my family fake his death?”
Natalie looked at the letter.
“Because Richard Vale built something bigger than Vale Holdings.”
“What?”
“A network.”
Ethan waited.
“Illegal financial operations.”
The words hung in the air.
“No.”
Natalie nodded.
“Claire found proof.”
Ethan walked away.
He needed space.
He needed something that made sense.
But every direction led back to the same place.
A secret.
A lie.
A betrayal.
“What happened the night she died?”
Natalie closed her eyes.
Five years disappeared from her expression.
And Ethan saw something he had never seen before.
Pain.
“She called me at 10:43 PM.”
“Why?”
“She had found the final piece of evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“A ledger.”
Ethan turned.
“A ledger?”
“Yes.”
Natalie’s voice dropped.
“A record showing every payment, every person involved, every name protected by your family.”
Ethan felt his chest tighten.
“Who was on it?”
Natalie looked at him.
“You.”
The answer hit him like a punch.
“What?”
“Your name was listed.”
“No.”
“I know what you’re thinking.”
“You’re lying.”
Natalie didn’t react.
“Claire thought the same thing.”
Ethan froze.
“She thought you were involved?”
“No.”
Natalie shook her head.
“She thought someone used your identity.”
That changed everything.
Ethan stared at her.
“Then why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because she was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“No.”
Natalie looked toward the hallway.
“Of what would happen if you knew.”
Ethan remembered Claire.
The woman who always protected everyone.
The woman who carried problems alone.
The woman who smiled even when she was exhausted.
“What happened after she called you?”
Natalie swallowed.
“She asked me to meet her.”
“Where?”
“An abandoned warehouse near the river.”
Ethan’s expression darkened.
“Why would she go there alone?”
“She wasn’t alone.”
A pause.
“She trusted me.”
The answer hurt him.
More than he expected.
Because Claire had trusted Natalie.
And Ethan had never known.
“What happened there?”
Natalie looked down.
“When I arrived, Claire was already injured.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“She was bleeding.”
“No.”
“She told me she had been followed.”
“By who?”
Natalie’s eyes filled with fear.
“She never saw his face.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because she recognized his voice.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“Whose voice?”
May you like
Natalie whispered:
“Your father’s.”
