Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Looked Like My Mother
I ran downstairs holding the photograph.
“Nathan!”
Everyone looked up.
I slammed it onto the dining table.
“Explain this.”
Daniel leaned closer.
His face changed.
Rebecca whispered, “Claire…”
Emily stood.
Nathan stared at the photograph.
“Where did you get that?”
“You slid it under the door.”
“No, I didn’t.”
I froze.
“What?”
“I never went upstairs.”
My heartbeat slowed in the most terrifying way.
“You knocked.”
“No.”
“You spoke to me.”
Nathan shook his head.
“I’ve been here with Daniel.”
Rebecca nodded.
“He has.”
I looked toward the staircase.
Someone had been outside my bedroom.
Someone had pushed the photograph under the door.
The police officers searched the house immediately.
Back rooms.
Closets.
Basement.
Garage.
Nothing.
One officer found the side door unlocked.
I knew I had locked it the night before.
Daniel examined the photograph.
“This was taken in Richmond.”
“Yes.”
“The woman resembles your mother?”
“It is my mother.”
Rebecca touched my arm.
“Claire, your mother died.”
“I buried her.”
Nathan studied the photograph.
“I saw her too.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“About four months ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He gave me a hollow look.
“Would you have believed me?”
“Apparently that stopped bothering you years ago.”
He accepted the hit.
“I was leaving the townhouse. She was across the street. By the time I crossed over, she was gone.”
Emily whispered, “You told me you imagined it.”
“I thought I did.”
Daniel looked at the woman’s face.
“What was your mother’s name?”
“Marianne Weston.”
He froze.
Rebecca noticed.
“You know that name.”
Daniel slowly sat down.
“Marianne Weston was one of Halcyon’s original outside auditors.”
I stared at him.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“My mother was an accountant for a hospital group.”
“Before that.”
“She never worked for Halcyon.”
“Not publicly.”
Daniel opened his laptop.
He searched an offline archive.
Then turned the screen toward me.
An internal report dated eleven years earlier.
Prepared by M. Weston.
I read the first paragraph twice.
It described irregular financial transfers connected to Halcyon subcontractors.
My mother.
My quiet, careful, rule-following mother.
She had investigated the same company that later hired my husband.
“How?”
Nathan spoke softly.
“I didn’t know until after I disappeared.”
I looked at him.
“You knew my mother was connected to this?”
“Yes.”
“And you kept that from me too.”
“I was trying to verify it.”
“You have a remarkable talent for protecting me by making sure I know absolutely nothing about my own life.”
He looked away.
Daniel continued searching.
“Marianne reported suspicious accounts. Then she withdrew the complaint.”
“Why?”
“No record.”
Rebecca said, “When did she die?”
“Five years ago.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Daniel and Nathan exchanged a look.
I saw it.
“No.”
Neither spoke.
I stepped closer.
“No. Do not do that. Do not look at each other like that.”
Nathan said, “Claire—”
“My mother drove off a bridge during a storm.”
Daniel spoke carefully.
“The official report may be accurate.”
“May be?”
“We need to check.”
My legs weakened.
I sat.
For years, my mother’s death had existed in a sealed part of my memory.
Late-night phone call.
Highway patrol.
Rain.
A guardrail.
A river.
Closed coffin.
The sentence “She died instantly.”
I had never questioned it.
Why would I?
Rebecca asked Daniel, “Was Marianne still investigating Halcyon near the time of her death?”
“I don’t know.”
A police officer returned.
“No intruder found. We recommend everyone leave the property until we can secure it.”
Rebecca immediately said, “Claire is coming with me.”
Nathan nodded.
“So am I.”
“No,” I said.
He looked at me.
“I need to stay close.”
“You need to stay away from me.”
“Claire, whoever entered this house—”
“Is connected to you.”
“Maybe.”
“Definitely.”
Daniel stood.
“I have a secure location.”
I laughed.
“Does everyone except me have secret locations?”
Nobody answered.
We left twenty minutes later in separate cars.
Rebecca drove me.
Nathan and Daniel followed.
Emily rode with them.
The secure location turned out to be a small office above a closed print shop twenty minutes outside the city.
Inside were filing cabinets, old computers, bottled water, and two folding tables.
Daniel had apparently been working there for months.
He connected the encrypted drive.
“You have it?” Nathan asked.
Daniel nodded.
“The photo sent to you was staged. I intercepted the courier first.”
Nathan stared.
“You sent the message?”
“Yes.”
“BRING CLAIRE TO US?”
“I needed to know whether anyone else had access to your phone.”
“You terrified her.”
Daniel looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying that.”
He nodded.
Fair.
The drive required two passwords.
Nathan knew the first.
Emily knew the second.
I stared at them as they entered the credentials.
“How cozy.”
Emily flinched.
I hated myself slightly for enjoying that.
The drive opened.
Folders filled the screen.
Payments.
Invoices.
Videos.
Contracts.
Employee names.
Daniel clicked one labeled WESTON.
My mother’s name appeared.
Inside were eighteen documents.
The newest was dated six years earlier.
One year before she died.
Nathan opened it.
It was a letter.
To Claire,
If this file ever reaches you, something has gone wrong.
My breath stopped.
The room disappeared.
Only the words remained.
I know you believe my work was ordinary. I wanted you to believe that. Some truths do not protect the people we love. They endanger them.
I covered my mouth.
Rebecca stood behind me.
The letter continued.
Halcyon discovered that I had traced several laundering channels. I agreed to stop in exchange for keeping our family out of their network. I believed the agreement would hold.
It did not.
They began watching you after you married Nathan Cole.
I looked at Nathan.
He looked shattered.
I kept reading.
At the time of this letter, I do not believe Nathan knows about my investigation. If he ever discovers it, he will have to choose between protecting you and exposing them.
My mother had predicted everything.
The last paragraph contained a warning.
Do not trust the account that carries your name.
It was created before your father died.
There is money inside it that never belonged to us.
Rebecca frowned.
“What account?”
Daniel searched.
A hidden directory appeared.
Inside was a bank number.
Not the account Nathan had used.
Another one.
Opened fourteen years ago.
In my name.
Balance:
$18,430,000.
I stood so quickly the chair fell.
“That’s not mine.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
Nathan whispered, “That’s what they came back for.”
“Who?”
Daniel opened the transaction history.
Millions had moved through the account for years.
My name.
My tax identification.
My mother’s former address.
Halcyon had used my identity as a financial cover long before Nathan ever disappeared.
Rebecca looked sick.
“This could make Claire appear complicit.”
“Exactly,” Daniel said.
Nathan turned to me.
“That’s why I came home.”
I stared at him.
“For this account?”
“To clear your name before Halcyon activated it again.”
“And the forty-eight hours?”
“They’re shutting down operations. Someone is moving everything.”
Daniel scrolled to the newest transaction request.
Scheduled tomorrow.
All $18.4 million.
Destination unknown.
Rebecca said, “We can stop it.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not without revealing we have the drive.”
“Then reveal it.”
“If we do that too early, everyone named in these files disappears.”
I stared at the screen.
My marriage had become almost irrelevant.
This was my identity.
My mother.
My father’s trust.
My future.
I asked, “Who controls the account?”
Daniel clicked the authorization profile.
The primary administrator appeared.
My mother’s name.
Secondary administrator:
Nathan Cole.
I turned to him slowly.
His face went blank.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Daniel said, “Someone added you.”
“When?”
He checked.
Three years ago.
The exact day Nathan left me.
Then a third administrator appeared.
Emily Hart.
She whispered, “No.”
Rebecca took a step back.
Nathan looked at Daniel.
“This is a setup.”
Daniel did not answer.
I stared at the three names.
My dead mother.
My husband.
His mistress.
All tied to eighteen million dollars in my name.
Then the computer made a soft notification sound.
A new login had accessed the account.
From inside the room.
Everyone froze.
Daniel looked at the network monitor.
One device.
Unknown.
Connected less than thirty seconds earlier.
He turned slowly toward the locked storage closet behind us.
The handle moved.
Once.
Then again.
May you like
And someone on the other side whispered my mother’s voice.
“Claire, don’t let Nathan open that door.”
