Chapter 10 - The Night Claire Finally Talked
Police found the apartment empty.
Claire was gone.
So was Damon.
The safe remained open.
Inside were photographs of me taken over six years.
College graduation.
My first job.
My grandmother's funeral.
A coffee shop.
The charity gala where Damon supposedly met me by accident.
He had been watching me long before that night.
The contract was worse.
Thomas had promised Damon control of a portion of the recovered family assets if Damon married into my grandmother's line and secured legal access to the trust.
My marriage had been assigned a dollar value.
Rachel photographed everything.
Then Owen found blood.
One small smear beside the safe.
Claire's.
He nearly lost control.
“I'm going to kill him.”
“No.”
“He took her.”
“And if you go after him, he wins.”
Owen stared at me.
“She betrayed both of us.”
“I know.”
“Why do you care?”
Because betrayal didn't erase twelve years.
Because Claire might be my sister.
Because she had done something unforgivable and still didn't deserve to be hurt.
“Because I'm not Damon.”
We tracked Claire's phone.
It activated briefly near a motel outside the city.
Police arrived.
Claire was alone.
Damon had released her.
Her lip was cut.
Her wrist bruised.
But she was alive.
At the hospital, she finally told us everything.
The affair had begun after Damon caught her searching his office.
He threatened Owen.
Then threatened me.
Claire made the worst possible decision.
She tried to stay close enough to Damon to steal evidence.
“And part of you wanted him?” I asked.
She looked at me.
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt.
“I won't lie anymore.”
“Good.”
“I was jealous of you.”
That surprised me.
“You had the marriage. The baby. The family. Then I learned we might be sisters, and instead of feeling happy, I felt cheated.”
She wiped her eyes.
“You had our mother. Our grandmother. A childhood that belonged to you. I had questions.”
“You think sleeping with my husband fixed that?”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“I think it destroyed the one family I might have had.”
I couldn't forgive her.
Not then.
Maybe not ever.
But I could understand that people were more complicated than heroes and villains.
Except perhaps Damon.
Police issued warrants related to fraud, kidnapping and unlawful restraint.
Thomas disappeared.
Damon contacted me once more.
He wanted immunity in exchange for evidence against his father.
The prosecutor refused full immunity.
Damon demanded to speak with me.
I agreed only with investigators listening.
We met in a monitored conference room.
Damon looked exhausted.
For a moment, I saw the man I had loved.
Then I remembered the photographs.
“You watched me for years.”
“At first.”
“At first?”
“Then I knew you.”
“You knew what coffee I drank. What made me laugh. What I feared. You studied me.”
“And then I fell in love with you.”
“Love doesn't require forged signatures.”
He lowered his eyes.
“I didn't expect the baby.”
That hurt worst.
“Our daughter?”
“When you told me, I wanted out.”
“Out of what?”
“My father's plan.”
“Then why continue?”
“Because he threatened you.”
I almost believed him.
Almost.
Then he made one mistake.
“He said he'd tell you about Claire.”
I stared.
Claire's affair with Damon hadn't begun until months into my pregnancy.
But Damon had just described Thomas threatening him with it before that.
His timeline was impossible.
“You're still lying.”
Damon realized too late.
I stood.
“Emily.”
I walked toward the door.
He struck the table.
“You don't know what your mother did!”
I stopped.
“What?”
Damon smiled.
There was desperation in it.
“Ask her why Claire was adopted.”
“My mother believed Claire died.”
“No.”
He leaned forward.
“Your mother chose which daughter she kept.”
I stared at him.
Then the conference-room door opened.
May you like
My mother was standing outside.
And she had heard every word.
