Chapter 4 - Evelyn’s Shadow
Clara stared at the phone.
“Play it again.”
Arthur hesitated.
“Please.”
He pressed the message.
Evelyn’s voice returned.
Calm.
Controlled.
Alive.
“Arthur, if Daniel marries Vanessa tomorrow, begin Phase Two.”
Clara covered her mouth.
Tears filled her eyes.
“She’s alive.”
Arthur nodded.
“Where is she?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother made me swear.”
Clara’s happiness immediately turned into anger.
“She let me think she was dead.”
Arthur lowered his eyes.
“She believed that was the only way to keep you alive.”
Clara stepped backward.
“What do you mean?”
Arthur explained slowly.
Weeks before the crash, Evelyn discovered irregular transfers from the Whitmore Family Trust.
The trust controlled the estate, several commercial buildings, and shares in Whitmore Medical Systems.
Daniel was authorized to manage certain accounts.
But he could not sell or transfer the core assets without Evelyn’s approval.
Someone had begun forging that approval.
“Daddy?”
Arthur’s silence answered.
“And Vanessa?”
“She was your mother’s personal legal adviser.”
Clara stared at him.
Vanessa had worked for Evelyn.
That was something Daniel had never told her.
“Your mother believed Daniel and Vanessa were moving money together.”
“Then why didn’t Mommy call the police?”
“She planned to.”
Arthur looked toward the door.
“But before she could deliver everything, the crash happened.”
Clara remembered the road.
The headlights.
Daniel’s call.
“Was Daddy there?”
“We don’t know.”
Arthur reached inside the metal box.
He removed a key.
“Your mother hid copies of certain documents somewhere inside this house.”
“Where?”
“She never told me.”
Another sound came from the corridor.
Arthur immediately shut the phone off.
Someone walked past.
They waited.
Silence returned.
Arthur handed Clara the key.
It was tiny.
Brass.
A number was engraved into the metal.
317.
“What does it open?”
“I hoped you might know.”
Clara studied it.
Then she remembered something from childhood.
Her mother had owned a small writing desk.
Inside the desk were numbered compartments.
It had disappeared after the crash.
Daniel said he donated it.
But Clara had seen movers carrying furniture toward the east wing.
The east wing had been locked ever since.
That afternoon, Daniel announced that he and Vanessa were leaving for a two-day honeymoon in Manhattan.
Before leaving, Daniel hugged Clara in the driveway.
“Be good.”
Clara looked into his face.
She wanted to ask if he had tried to hurt her mother.
Instead, she smiled.
“I will.”
Daniel entered the car.
Vanessa followed.
Before closing the door, Vanessa looked directly at Clara.
Then she looked toward the second-floor window.
Arthur stood behind the curtain.
Vanessa smiled.
The car drove away.
Arthur joined Clara.
“This may be our only chance.”
Clara pulled the brass key from her pocket.
May you like
They turned toward the locked east wing.
Neither noticed the tiny camera above the doorway blinking red.
