Chapter 16 - SAMUEL'S SECRET
For several hours, everyone assumed Samuel had betrayed them.
Ethan did too.
Then a message arrived.
It contained only an address.
An old church outside Hartford.
Ethan went with Agent Shaw.
Samuel was sitting alone in the last pew.
The trust documents were beside him.
“I didn’t steal them.”
Samuel sounded exhausted.
“I removed them before Richard could.”
Ethan did not sit.
“Dorn said there are two signatures.”
Samuel nodded.
“There are.”
He opened the original trust.
Claire’s signature appeared first.
Below it was another.
Margaret Vale.
Ethan frowned.
“That isn’t a secret.”
Samuel turned the page.
There was a third document attached.
A guardianship declaration.
If Ethan died, disappeared, or became legally incapacitated, Claire had named Samuel as Sophie’s temporary guardian.
Ethan stared at him.
“You never told me.”
“Claire asked me not to unless necessary.”
“Richard knew?”
“Eventually.”
“That’s why he controlled me.”
Samuel looked ashamed.
“He threatened to frame me for the stolen transfers.”
“But that wasn’t the only reason.”
Samuel took a deep breath.
“Claire was my daughter.”
Ethan stared at him.
Nothing made sense.
Samuel explained.
Marianne had been young when Claire was born.
Claire’s legal father, Thomas Morgan, raised her.
But Samuel had been Marianne’s closest friend.
Their relationship had existed briefly before Marianne married Thomas.
Samuel did not learn Claire was biologically his until she was already an adult.
“Did Claire know?”
“Yes.”
“Did Richard?”
“Yes.”
Ethan sat down.
Another hidden relationship.
Another secret Claire carried.
Samuel’s eyes filled.
“I stayed close as the family lawyer because it was the only way she wanted me in her life.”
“She loved Thomas as her father.”
“I respected that.”
Ethan’s anger softened but did not disappear.
“Why does this matter now?”
“Because Richard believed the Vale inheritance should be invalid.”
“He argued Claire wasn’t a legitimate descendant under an old family clause.”
“Was he right?”
“No.”
“Marianne was still her mother.”
“Blood through the maternal line was enough.”
Samuel pushed a sealed document toward Ethan.
“Claire had me prepare this after Richard challenged Sophie’s rights privately.”
“What is it?”
“A statement identifying every account Richard touched.”
“And naming Dorn.”
Ethan looked up.
“Why didn’t you give this to police six years ago?”
Samuel’s voice cracked.
“Because Claire died before she signed it.”
Ethan opened the envelope.
The final page was unsigned.
Then he noticed something.
A second page had been added later.
Signed.
Dated the morning Claire died.
Samuel looked shocked.
“I’ve never seen that page.”
Someone had placed it inside recently.
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And at the bottom was a handwritten sentence.
SAMUEL, IF ETHAN FINDS THIS, TELL HIM CELESTE KNOWS WHERE THE ORIGINAL VIDEO IS.
