Chapter 5 - The Lake House
Claire barely slept.
At sunrise, Jonathan arranged for a private investigator named Daniel Mercer to accompany her to the lake house.
Lily stayed with Claire’s closest friend, Rebecca.
Before leaving, Claire knelt beside her daughter.
“You’re safe here.”
Lily touched her mother’s face.
“Is Grandma mad at me?”
Claire’s heart broke.
“No.”
“Grandma made a terrible choice.”
“You did nothing wrong.”
Lily looked down.
“Daddy didn’t help me.”
Claire could not lie.
“No.”
“He didn’t.”
Lily nodded slowly.
That hurt more than tears would have.
Three hours later, Claire and Daniel reached the lake property.
The cabin looked exactly as Claire remembered.
Gray wood.
Stone chimney.
A narrow dock extending into still water.
But the front door was open.
Daniel immediately stopped her.
“Stay here.”
He entered first.
Several minutes later, he returned.
“Someone searched the place.”
Claire walked inside.
Cabinet doors hung open.
Mattresses had been overturned.
Her father’s desk had been emptied onto the floor.
“They came before us.”
Daniel examined muddy footprints near the back door.
“Recently.”
Claire walked toward the fireplace.
Her father’s letter had said the records were stored where she spent every summer.
That could mean anywhere.
Then she remembered something.
When Claire was twelve, her father had made a game of hiding birthday presents.
He always used the same clue.
Where the summer never ends.
Claire walked toward an old framed photograph.
It showed her as a child standing on the dock beside her father.
Behind the photograph was a small brass plate.
She pressed it.
A section of wall clicked open.
Daniel stared.
Inside was a narrow compartment.
Empty.
Claire’s stomach sank.
“We’re too late.”
Daniel shined his flashlight inside.
“Maybe not.”
A small metal box sat at the very back.
Claire reached for it.
Inside was a flash drive and another envelope.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
On the front were three words.
FOR CLAIRE ONLY.
She opened it.
The letter had been written by her mother.
Claire froze.
Her mother had died when Claire was seventeen.
The letter began with a sentence that made her knees weak.
Claire, if you are reading this, Margaret Whitmore has finally come for what she believes belongs to her.
Claire looked at Daniel.
“What does Margaret have to do with my mother?”
She continued reading.
Years before Claire met Ethan, Margaret had worked for her father.
She had been his financial controller.
Then she was fired.
The reason had never been explained to Claire.
The next paragraph explained why.
Margaret had stolen nearly two million dollars.
Claire’s father discovered it.
Instead of prosecuting her immediately, he forced her to repay part of it and signed a confidential settlement to protect several employees who had unknowingly assisted her.
But Claire’s mother had never trusted Margaret.
At the bottom of the letter were six words.
She will try again through your family.
Claire stared at the page.
Ethan had not met Claire accidentally.
Their marriage suddenly looked very different.
May you like
Then Daniel picked up the flash drive.
“Whatever is on this may tell us how different.”
