Chapter 6 - Claire Comes Home
Washington was cold when Claire arrived at the Whitmore residence in Georgetown.
The townhouse had belonged to her mother.
Claire had not entered it in twelve years.
Noah looked up at the gray stone building.
“Is this Grandma’s house?”
Claire swallowed.
“It was.”
“Did you live here?”
“When I was little.”
Noah took her hand.
“Can we stay?”
The question nearly broke her.
For years, Claire had lived in beautiful houses without ever feeling safe inside them.
She crouched beside him.
“Yes.”
Noah smiled.
That was enough.
Inside, nothing looked abandoned.
The furniture had been covered and preserved.
Books remained on shelves.
Photographs stayed inside drawers.
Her mother’s piano still faced the tall windows.
Claire walked into Eleanor’s study.
A sealed envelope waited inside the safe.
The trust attorney had told her it could not be opened until her thirty-second birthday.
Claire had been too busy escaping Adrian to read it.
Now she sat at her mother’s desk and broke the seal.
My dearest Claire,
If you are reading this, then you are thirty-two.
I pray the Vales have become better people by now.
But if they have not, you must understand something I was too frightened to tell you when you were young.
Malcolm Vale did not simply steal money from me.
He built his company using technology my team created.
When I confronted him, he threatened to destroy everyone who helped me prove it.
Claire’s hands tightened around the letter.
The next paragraph was worse.
I placed enough evidence in three locations to survive me.
One is with the trust.
One is somewhere inside the Vale family.
The third is with a person whose name you will not recognize until you need him.
Claire stopped reading.
A name appeared at the bottom.
Thomas Cole.
She stared at it.
Cole.
Ethan Cole.
Adrian’s executive assistant.
Claire immediately called Rebecca.
“Find out everything you can about Ethan’s father.”
Rebecca typed in the background.
“Give me a second.”
Then she went quiet.
“What?”
“Thomas Cole was Eleanor’s chief software engineer.”
Claire stood slowly.
“He worked for my mother?”
“Until 2009.”
“What happened to him?”
Rebecca’s voice softened.
“He disappeared.”
Claire looked at the next line of the letter.
If Thomas is dead, find his son.
He knows where the original server is.
Claire’s phone buzzed.
Ethan Cole.
She answered.
“Ethan?”
His voice was barely audible.
“Mrs. Vale, Adrian knows someone inside the company is helping you.”
Claire glanced toward Noah.
“Are you safe?”
“For now.”
“Then leave.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because your husband just called security.”
A door slammed through the phone.
Ethan whispered quickly.
May you like
“He found my father’s name.”
Then the line went dead.
