Chapter 2 - The Woman Adrian Never Knew
Claire watched the Pacific disappear beneath the clouds while Noah slept against her shoulder.
For four years, she had imagined freedom as something dramatic.
A slammed door.
A screaming argument.
A suitcase thrown into the trunk of a car.
Instead, freedom sounded like the soft hum of an aircraft cabin.
Noah’s little fingers were curled around the sleeve of her sweater.
He had asked only one question after they boarded.
“Is Daddy coming?”
Claire had looked into her son’s brown eyes.
“Not tonight.”
Noah had nodded.
He was used to Adrian not coming.
Across the aisle sat Claire’s attorney, Rebecca Sloan.
Rebecca closed her laptop.
“The emergency custody filing was accepted.”
Claire exhaled.
“Temporary orders?”
“The judge will hear us Monday morning.”
“And Adrian?”
“He’ll be served before sunrise.”
Claire looked out the window.
The divorce did not frighten her.
The company did.
The Whitmore Trust had activated at midnight on her birthday exactly as her mother had designed it.
Claire had always known money was coming.
What she had not known until six months earlier was why her mother had hidden it behind an age restriction.
Thirty-two.
The same age Eleanor Whitmore had been when she first discovered what Malcolm Vale was doing.
Rebecca handed Claire a folder.
Inside was a photograph of Malcolm leaving a private bank in Zurich.
The photograph had been taken eight months before Eleanor’s fatal car crash.
“Savannah sent the final recording,” Rebecca said.
Claire’s eyes sharpened.
“Did Adrian say it?”
“Yes.”
“All of it?”
Rebecca nodded.
“He admitted moving company funds through Reed Capital accounts.”
Claire leaned back.
Savannah Reed had started as a problem.
Then she became an opportunity.
Claire had discovered the affair eleven months earlier after Adrian accidentally synced one of his messages to the family tablet.
She had expected to hate Savannah.
Instead, she learned Savannah had her own reason for getting close to the Vale family.
Her father, Daniel Reed, had served as Vale Industries’ chief financial officer before being blamed for an accounting scandal that destroyed his career.
Daniel had died insisting Malcolm Vale framed him.
Savannah wanted proof.
Claire wanted the truth about her mother.
Together, they had built a trap.
Rebecca glanced toward Noah.
“Does Adrian know Savannah is working with you?”
“No.”
“Does he know the pregnancy is fake?”
“No.”
Rebecca almost smiled.
“Then tomorrow will be interesting.”
Claire’s phone vibrated.
A security notification from La Jolla.
Someone had entered the mansion’s original surveillance archive remotely.
Claire opened the alert.
The login belonged to Malcolm Vale.
Then another notification appeared.
A file had just been deleted.
CLAIRE_BEDROOM_2022.
Claire’s expression changed.
Rebecca saw it.
“What?”
Claire turned the screen toward her.
“My husband’s family wasn’t only watching the company.”
A second deleted file appeared.
NOAH_NURSERY_2023.
Rebecca sat upright.
May you like
Claire felt the blood drain from her face.
“They were watching my son.”
