Chapter 6 - THE LOYAL SON
Marjorie crossed the street without hurrying.
Camille immediately changed.
Her frightened expression disappeared.
By the time Marjorie reached the porch, Camille was smiling.
“Claire wouldn’t stop asking about Grant,” Camille said.
Claire understood.
Camille was protecting her cover.
Marjorie looked between them.
“Of course she wouldn’t.”
She turned to Claire.
“You’ve always mistaken possession for love.”
Claire folded her arms.
“What do you want?”
“To make peace.”
Claire laughed.
Marjorie did not.
“I mean it.”
She handed Claire a folder.
Inside was a buyout offer for Claire’s company shares.
Sixty-two million dollars.
More than market value.
“You sign,” Marjorie said, “and you walk away from Grant, the company, and this family.”
Claire looked at her.
“Why would you pay me extra?”
“Because conflict is expensive.”
“No. Because you need my shares.”
Marjorie smiled slightly.
“At least grief hasn’t made you stupid.”
Claire closed the folder.
“My father found thirty-eight million missing.”
Marjorie’s expression did not change.
“Your father found what he wanted to find.”
“Did you kill him?”
Camille inhaled softly.
Marjorie stepped closer.
“No.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Then she added:
“But I hated him enough to understand why someone might.”
Claire watched her eyes.
No fear.
No guilt.
Only old anger.
“Why?”
Marjorie’s face hardened.
“Ask your sainted father what happened to my husband.”
“My father is dead.”
“Yes,” Marjorie said. “Convenient for him.”
She turned and walked away.
That night, Claire searched Daniel’s archives for Henry Caldwell.
She found newspaper reports from seventeen years earlier.
Henry Caldwell had been investigated for bribery, pension fraud, and illegal campaign donations.
The whistleblower had never been named.
The investigation destroyed him.
Six months later, Henry died by suicide.
Claire stared at the dates.
Her father had served as Caldwell Holdings’ chief financial officer at the time.
Then she found a private memo.
Prepared by Daniel.
He had been the whistleblower.
Claire closed her eyes.
Marjorie had spent seventeen years blaming her father for Henry’s death.
Now the motive was clear.
But motive was not proof.
Claire called Thomas.
He did not answer.
She called again.
Nothing.
Then a text arrived from his number.
MEET ME AT THE OLD RIVER LOT. I FOUND THE DRIVER.
Claire drove there despite Rebecca’s warning.
The river lot was empty.
Thomas’s car sat beneath a broken streetlamp.
The driver’s door was open.
Claire approached slowly.
“Thomas?”
No answer.
His phone lay on the ground.
Beside it was a photograph.
Claire picked it up.
May you like
It showed Grant standing beside Daniel’s wrecked car.
Before police had arrived.
