Chapter 4 - THE PERFECT WIFE
Claire remembered the night she met Ethan.
A charity dinner in Boston.
He spilled wine on her coat.
She laughed.
He bought her coffee afterward.
Three years later, they were married.
She had believed it was fate.
The file said otherwise.
Eleanor had tracked Claire for almost a year before that dinner.
Her college records.
Her mother’s medical debt.
Her employment.
Her friendships.
Even the apartment building where she lived.
Ethan stared at the documents.
“I swear I didn’t know.”
Claire wanted to believe him.
But she had believed him before.
Maria opened another cabinet.
“Nora said there were records about all the wives.”
“All?”
Claire asked.
Maria nodded slowly.
“The women who married Hawthorne men.”
Ethan opened his father’s file.
Inside were photographs of Richard with another woman.
Not Eleanor.
A woman with auburn hair.
In several photographs, she held a baby.
“Who is she?”
Claire asked.
Ethan shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
A typed report identified her.
SARAH WHITMORE.
RELATIONSHIP TERMINATED.
CHILD PLACEMENT COMPLETED.
Ethan went pale.
“What does child placement mean?”
Before Claire could answer, footsteps sounded on the stairs.
Someone was coming.
Maria switched off the light.
They stood in darkness.
The steel door opened.
A man entered.
Ethan recognized him immediately.
“Uncle Victor?”
Victor Hawthorne was Eleanor’s younger brother.
He served as chief legal officer for the family company.
He stopped when he saw them.
“You opened it.”
Claire stepped forward.
“What is this place?”
Victor looked tired rather than surprised.
“A mistake your mother should have destroyed years ago.”
Ethan held up his father’s photograph.
“My father was alive after his funeral.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“Put that down.”
“Tell me the truth.”
“I can’t.”
Ethan grabbed his jacket.
Victor did not fight him.
Instead, he whispered.
“Your father didn’t die thirteen years ago.”
Claire felt the room tilt.
Ethan released him.
“When did he die?”
May you like
Victor looked toward the open cabinets.
“I don’t know.”
