Chapter 8 - CLARA’S NOTEBOOK
Clara had kept a notebook during my absence.
It was hidden inside a loose panel beneath our bedroom window.
Helena searched Clara’s drawers but never found it.
The first entries were ordinary.
Julian called from Tokyo.
Baby appointment scheduled for Tuesday.
Need to tell him when he is less exhausted.
Then the tone changed.
Sienna says Julian canceled tonight’s call.
My card was declined at the pharmacy.
Damian says I embarrassed the family by asking questions.
The handwriting became less steady.
They removed the phone from the bedroom.
Helena says Julian authorized everything.
I don’t believe her, but why hasn’t he answered?
Later entries were written in short, frightened lines.
Tea made me sleep twelve hours.
Evelyn brought me soup.
Damian entered the room at 2:10 A.M.
He stood beside the bed and took photographs.
They want proof that I cannot care for myself.
The final complete entry was dated four days before my return.
I heard Helena telling Sienna that the clinic has prepared a room.
They are going to say I hurt myself.
I need to reach the gate tomorrow.
Below that sentence, Clara had written my name repeatedly.
The next page had been torn out.
“What was on it?” I asked.
“I don’t remember.”
She pressed her fingers against her temple.
“I was dizzy that night.”
Marcus examined the notebook.
The missing page had left impressions on the paper beneath it.
A forensic specialist used angled light and digital enhancement.
Slowly, the indented words became visible.
Damian told Helena that Julian might discover the accounts.
Helena said there is another way to make him disappear.
I read the sentence twice.
They had fabricated my death for the courts.
But Clara’s note suggested something worse.
Detective Monroe searched Damian’s seized messages.
One encrypted conversation referenced a pilot named Grant.
Marcus checked my travel records.
The private jet scheduled to bring me home from Singapore had reported a mechanical issue two hours before departure.
I chose a commercial flight instead.
At the time, I considered it an inconvenience.
Investigators examined the jet.
A fuel line had been deliberately loosened.
If the aircraft had taken off, the failure might not have occurred until we were over open water.
The mechanic responsible received two hundred thousand dollars from a shell company controlled by Damian.
He was arrested at the border.
Helena had not only prepared documents declaring me dead.
She had taken steps to make them true.
When Clara heard the news, she became physically ill.
“They were going to kill you.”
“They failed.”
“Because you changed flights.”
“Yes.”
She gripped my jacket.
“If you had boarded that plane—”
“I didn’t.”
“But I would have believed you died thinking I had become a burden.”
I pulled her into my arms.
“That is what Helena wanted.”
May you like
Clara looked toward the security monitor.
“Then we need to show everyone exactly who she is.”
