Chapter 2 - THE LETTER I NEVER WROTE
I stared at Gabriel in the underground garage while the boys stood behind me.
“What note?”
Gabriel looked toward Marco.
“Get another car.”
Marco nodded and moved away.
I stepped in front of Gabriel.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You’re going to answer me now.”
“Claire.”
“You just said someone sent you a note five years ago.”
“Yes.”
“What did it say?”
His eyes moved toward the boys.
“Not here.”
I almost laughed.
“You asked me for five minutes upstairs, and now suddenly you need privacy?”
“This has nothing to do with avoiding the question.”
“Then answer it.”
Gabriel reached inside his jacket.
For one wild second I wondered whether he carried the note with him.
Instead, he removed his phone.
He opened an encrypted folder.
Then he showed me a photograph.
It was a handwritten letter.
The first line made my stomach turn.
Gabriel,
By the time you read this, I’ll already have spoken to the attorney.
I read farther.
I know things about Cross Freight that could destroy you.
If you make the divorce difficult, I’ll use them.
I stared at the signature.
Claire.
It looked like mine.
Almost.
My ears began ringing.
“I never wrote this.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“I never wrote this.”
“I know that now.”
My head snapped up.
“What?”
“I had the ink tested later.”
“When?”
“Three months after you left.”
I could barely understand him.
“You knew three months later that the letter was fake?”
“Yes.”
“And you never called me?”
His jaw tightened.
“I tried.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I called the number you had.”
“I changed it.”
“I sent people to the Boston address.”
I froze.
“You knew I was in Boston?”
“For six weeks.”
“You had people following me?”
“Protecting you.”
“Following me.”
His silence answered.
I stepped backward.
“You really haven’t changed.”
His face hardened.
“You had just been married to me.”
“Had been.”
“I had enemies.”
“And I wanted out.”
“You wanted anonymity.”
“Yes.”
“And I gave it to you.”
I stared at him.
“You knew where I was.”
“For six weeks.”
“And after that?”
“You disappeared.”
“I moved.”
“To Maine.”
My pulse jumped.
“How do you know that?”
“I didn’t.”
His answer came quickly.
“I know now because one of the Foundation donors mentioned your firm opened a Portland office three years ago.”
I studied his face.
Gabriel could lie without blinking.
That was one reason I had left so cleanly.
But I knew him well enough to recognize the difference between a lie and a secret.
He was telling the truth.
At least about that.
The replacement vehicles arrived.
Marco opened a door.
Gabriel turned to me.
“We’re going to one of my secure residences.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“We are going to my apartment.”
“Absolutely not.”
I almost smiled.
“You really missed hearing yourself give orders.”
His expression remained hard.
“Someone disabled three vehicles inside a controlled garage.”
“And whose controlled garage is it?”
He had no answer.
“Exactly.”
I loaded the boys into the replacement SUV.
Gabriel followed.
I turned.
“You’re not coming.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No.”
“Claire, this isn’t negotiable.”
I leaned close enough that only he could hear.
“You divorced me.”
His eyes darkened.
“You do not get to spend five years with another woman and then decide one DNA revelation restores your authority over my life.”
Something moved across his face.
Regret.
Anger.
Maybe both.
“I’m not claiming authority over you.”
“You are trying to decide where I sleep tonight.”
“I’m trying to make sure you wake up tomorrow.”
Noah heard him.
“Why wouldn’t Mom wake up?”
I closed my eyes.
Gabriel immediately crouched.
“Bad choice of words.”
Noah frowned.
“Mom says adults say that when they said something true by accident.”
Gabriel looked at me.
I almost smiled despite myself.
“He gets that from you.”
“He gets everything from me.”
Gabriel’s gaze moved across all three boys.
“No.”
The word was soft.
“He doesn’t.”
I climbed inside.
Gabriel got in across from me.
I hated him for being right.
We drove south through Manhattan.
Another security SUV followed behind us.
The boys whispered among themselves.
I kept thinking about the letter.
Finally, I looked at Gabriel.
“Why did it convince you?”
He knew exactly what I meant.
“The letter.”
“You saw me with Serena.”
The directness surprised me.
I looked out the window.
“Yes.”
“You came to the office.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know you were there.”
“I know.”
“I should have.”
“That wouldn’t have stopped you.”
He accepted that without defending himself.
“No.”
The word hurt more than an excuse would have.
I swallowed.
“So why did a fake letter matter?”
“Because it arrived the night before I decided to ask for the divorce.”
“Decided?”
“You think I had been planning it for months.”
“You had papers ready.”
“My attorney can prepare papers in three hours.”
“Congratulations.”
Gabriel exhaled.
“The letter said you knew about the Rotterdam accounts.”
My body went still.
I did know about Rotterdam.
Gabriel saw my expression.
“You did know.”
“I knew there were accounts.”
“How?”
“I found documents in the library safe.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You never told me.”
“I was your wife.”
“And you were searching my safe?”
“I was searching for my passport.”
“That safe required a code.”
“It was our anniversary.”
For one second, he almost looked embarrassed.
“I should have changed it.”
“Yes, because that is the lesson here.”
He looked away.
“The letter arrived two days after Serena told me you had asked questions about the accounts.”
My blood went cold.
“Serena told you?”
“Yes.”
“I had never spoken to Serena.”
Gabriel looked back at me.
“What?”
“Not once.”
“She said you confronted her at the Mercer Hotel.”
“I had never been inside the Mercer Hotel until tonight.”
Gabriel went completely still.
“She described what you were wearing.”
“What?”
“Cream coat.”
I felt sick.
I owned a cream coat.
Gabriel knew it.
Most people who had photographed me beside him knew it.
“She said you threatened to expose us both.”
“I didn’t even know Serena knew anything about your accounts.”
Silence filled the SUV.
Gabriel reached for his phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“Serena.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You don’t accuse someone of something like this over the phone.”
“I’m not accusing her.”
“You look like you’re about to order an execution.”
The boys turned.
Gabriel put the phone away.
“Another bad choice of expression.”
I lowered my voice.
“Think.”
His jaw moved.
“If Serena lied about meeting me, and somebody forged a letter, somebody wanted you angry enough not to question the divorce.”
“That someone also needed access to my office.”
“Serena had access.”
“Yes.”
“And your handwriting.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“She did.”
“How?”
“You sent me birthday cards.”
I stared at him.
He continued.
“I kept them.”
For some reason, that hurt.
“You kept my cards while sleeping with her?”
“I wasn’t sleeping with her when you sent them.”
“You kissed her.”
“Yes.”
“You chose her.”
His gaze stayed on mine.
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No revision.
No attempt to rewrite history.
That somehow made it harder to hate him cleanly.
The SUV turned onto a quieter street.
I looked outside.
“We’re not going toward my apartment.”
“No.”
I glared at him.
He held up one hand.
“Your building security chief called Marco ten minutes ago.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Someone tried to enter your apartment.”
The boys stopped whispering.
“What?”
I asked.
“A man claiming to be maintenance.”
“We don’t have overnight maintenance.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because Marco called your building.”
I reached for my phone.
Gabriel stopped me.
“Claire.”
“Move.”
“Don’t call the apartment.”
“Why?”
“If someone is inside, I don’t want your phone lighting up there.”
“No one has my spare phone.”
“Do the boys have tablets?”
My face changed.
Owen did.
It was charging beside his bed.
Gabriel immediately spoke to Marco.
“Kill the connection to Claire’s home network.”
Marco started typing.
I stared at Gabriel.
“Can you do that?”
“I own the cybersecurity company that protects your building.”
I blinked.
“Of course you do.”
He almost smiled.
Then Marco swore.
Gabriel turned.
“What?”
“The tablet came online thirty seconds ago.”
My blood went cold.
“No.”
Marco rotated his screen.
A location indicator showed Owen’s tablet inside my apartment.
Someone had unplugged it.
Then opened it.
Gabriel’s expression became stone.
“Can you access the camera?”
Marco nodded.
“Remote parental permissions are active.”
“That’s mine.”
I said.
“I set them up.”
Marco hesitated.
“Do it.”
Gabriel ordered.
The screen changed.
At first, all we saw was darkness.
Then a shape moved past the tablet.
A man.
He was in my bedroom.
Opening drawers.
Searching.
I covered my mouth.
Noah whispered.
“Mom?”
“I’m okay.”
I wasn’t.
The man moved closer to the tablet.
We saw part of his face.
Gabriel’s entire body stiffened.
“You know him.”
I said.
He did not answer.
“Gabriel.”
The man picked up the tablet.
His face filled the screen.
Late fifties.
Silver hair.
Scar beside the jaw.
Gabriel stared.
Marco whispered.
“That’s impossible.”
“Who is he?”
I demanded.
Gabriel finally spoke.
“His name is Anthony Bell.”
“Who is Anthony Bell?”
Gabriel looked at me.
“He worked for my father.”
I waited.
Gabriel’s next sentence made the air leave my lungs.
“He died seven years ago.”
On the tablet screen, the supposedly dead man smiled directly into the camera.
Then he spoke.
“Hello, Gabriel.”
The boys heard him.
So did I.
Anthony Bell leaned closer.
“You finally found your sons.”
His smile widened.
“Now let’s see how long you can keep them.”
May you like
The screen went black.
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