Chapter 6 - The Man Who Found Clara
Vanessa stopped pretending.
She sat down.
“My father found Clara.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“You said Richard’s men took her.”
“They did.”
“After that.”
Vanessa looked at Emily.
“My father found her again.”
“When?”
“Three months after she disappeared.”
Emily’s heartbeat thundered.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Margaret grabbed the edge of the dresser.
“Where?”
“Pennsylvania.”
Gerald Vale had located Clara at a roadside motel near Scranton.
She was using another name.
She had cut her hair.
She planned to leave for Canada.
“Why didn’t he tell Richard?”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Because he realized Clara had something worth more than loyalty.”
“The ledger.”
“Yes.”
Gerald offered her a deal.
He would help her escape permanently if she gave him the ledger.
Clara refused.
“What happened?”
Vanessa looked away.
“I don’t know.”
Emily stepped closer.
“You know.”
“I know what my father told me.”
“Which was?”
“That Clara ran.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
Vanessa snapped.
“You weren’t there.”
“No.”
Margaret’s voice broke.
“But Clara called me that night.”
Everyone froze.
Emily stared.
“You spoke to her?”
Margaret nodded.
“She said Gerald found her.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Because she begged me not to.”
“What else did she say?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“She said if anything happened to her, Emily had to stay hidden.”
Emily felt tears rising.
“She knew Richard would never stop looking.”
Margaret continued.
“Then she said something strange.”
“What?”
“She said Gerald had made the biggest mistake of his life.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
Daniel noticed.
“Why?”
Margaret looked toward the locket.
“Because he took the wrong copy.”
Silence.
Emily looked at Vanessa.
“Your father thought he had the ledger.”
Vanessa nodded slowly.
“He did.”
“Then why are you still looking for it?”
“Because it was fake.”
The room changed.
Clara had tricked Gerald.
The red ledger he took contained meaningless numbers.
By the time he realized, Clara was gone.
Gerald spent years searching for the real one.
Then Richard died.
Ashbourne Holdings collapsed.
Gerald rebuilt his career elsewhere.
But he never stopped hunting for Clara’s evidence.
Emily asked, “Did he think I knew?”
Vanessa nodded.
“That is why I started watching you.”
Emily looked at the cheek Vanessa had slapped.
“You could have asked me.”
Vanessa laughed.
“And trust you?”
“You framed me for theft.”
“I needed you out of the mansion.”
“Why tonight?”
Vanessa went silent.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Answer.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“Because tomorrow the old Ashbourne trust expires.”
Daniel frowned.
“What trust?”
“The one Clara’s daughter inherits if she is found before midnight.”
Emily stopped breathing.
May you like
Vanessa looked at her.
“By tomorrow morning, you could legally own thirty-one percent of everything Daniel rebuilt from your grandfather’s ruins.”
