Chapter 6 - MY HOUSE
Damian laughed.
I didn't.
"Claire."
"Get out."
"You don't know what you're doing."
"Probably not."
I walked to the ballroom doors.
"But I'm learning quickly."
Lydia crossed her arms.
"This is my son's marital residence."
"Not anymore."
"You can't throw your husband out in the middle of the night."
Rebecca spoke from behind me.
"She can ask him to leave property she controls."
Damian looked at Rebecca.
Then at me.
The expression on his face was familiar.
The quiet warning.
The one that usually meant he would wait until we were alone.
That realization used to frighten me.
Now there were eighty witnesses.
So I pulled up my sleeve.
I let the room see the bruises.
"I want him removed."
The whispering began.
Phones lifted.
Damian went pale.
"Claire, put your sleeve down."
"No."
"You're embarrassing yourself."
"No."
"Those marks happened when you fell."
"No."
The word became easier every time.
Lydia approached.
"You've had an emotional evening."
I turned toward her.
"My mother walked back from the dead."
"Exactly."
"And somehow you're still the strangest thing in this room."
Someone laughed.
Lydia's face hardened.
Good.
Damian leaned close enough that only I could hear him.
"You think your mother saved you?"
I stared at him.
"No."
His eyes narrowed.
"I think she reminded me that survival is possible."
Security escorted Damian and Lydia from the mansion at 12:31 a.m.
Before stepping outside, Damian turned.
"I'll be back by morning."
Then he smiled.
"Chairmen don't need invitations."
Mom came beside me.
"He believes he's won."
"Has he?"
"For tonight."
I looked at her.
"What aren't you telling me?"
Her expression answered before her words did.
"There's a second trust."
Dad turned from across the room.
"What?"
Mom reached into her folder.
"Hale Holdings isn't the real target."
She unfolded a document.
"Hale Infrastructure Trust controls the patents, land rights, and private debt behind half the company."
Dad stared.
"I dissolved that trust after the crash."
"No."
Mom placed the document before him.
"Malcolm Cross moved it."
"That's impossible."
"He used your electronic authorization."
The forged authorization.
The one tied to Dad.
Mom continued.
"For fourteen years, someone has been collecting the income."
"Who?"
"We don't know."
Then Rebecca's phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed immediately.
"When?"
She listened.
"Secure the scene."
My stomach tightened.
"What happened?"
Rebecca slowly lowered the phone.
"Nathan Price's car was found abandoned outside his apartment building."
Dad frowned.
"Where is he?"
"No one knows."
"Did Damian—"
Rebecca shook her head.
"There's more."
She looked at Mom.
"Someone entered the Hale archive twenty minutes ago."
Mom went pale.
"What did they take?"
Rebecca answered.
"The original Cross Atlantic files."
May you like
Fourteen years of evidence.
Gone.
