Chapter 6 - The Man Who Knew Where She Was Hiding
The first thing Vincent did was call Claire.
She didn't answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
On the third attempt, Ethan picked up.
“What do you want?”
“Where's Claire?”
“She's sleeping.”
“Wake her.”
“No.”
“Ethan, listen carefully. Someone found the house.”
Silence.
Then Ethan asked, “What house?”
Vincent closed his eyes.
The question told him something important.
Ethan hadn't given away their location.
And Claire hadn't told Vincent where she was.
Someone else had found her.
“There's a threat,” Vincent said. “I need you to get her somewhere secure.”
Ethan's voice hardened.
“Is this another one of your attempts to drag her home?”
“No.”
“Because I swear to God—”
“Ethan.”
Vincent's voice broke.
That stopped him.
“Please. I think my sister is involved, and I don't know how far this goes.”
Ethan said nothing for several seconds.
Then he asked, “What do you want me to do?”
“Keep Claire away from windows. Lock the doors. Don't trust anyone who says I sent them.”
“Even your security?”
“Especially anyone claiming to be my security.”
Ethan hung up.
Vincent turned to Logan.
“Get the Wisconsin authorities involved.”
Logan nodded.
“And our people?”
“No armed convoy. No scene outside her house. She needs protection, not another reason to fear me.”
It was the first order Vincent had given in years that placed Claire's wishes above his instinct to control everything.
At the little house near Lake Geneva, Ethan checked the locks.
Margaret closed the curtains.
Claire stood in the kitchen, holding her phone.
“Vincent said Vanessa might be involved?”
Ethan nodded.
Claire stared at the floor.
“I knew she hated me. I didn't think she'd put the baby in danger.”
“Maybe she hasn't.”
“Ethan.”
He looked at her.
“Someone changed my medical records. Someone framed me for theft. Someone followed me here.”
Ethan had no answer.
A car passed slowly outside.
Both of them turned toward the window.
The vehicle continued down the road.
Claire exhaled.
Margaret placed a hand on her shoulder.
“You need to sit down.”
“I can't keep running.”
“You don't have to decide anything tonight.”
Claire looked at her brother.
“What if this doesn't stop when the baby comes?”
Ethan swallowed.
“Then we make sure the people responsible can't reach you.”
Claire lowered herself into a chair.
For the first time, she allowed herself to say what had been growing inside her since leaving Chicago.
“I don't know whether I can ever go back to Vincent.”
Ethan pulled out the chair across from her.
“You don't have to.”
She looked up.
“I still love him.”
“I know.”
“I hate that I do.”
Ethan reached across the table.
“Loving someone doesn't obligate you to live with them.”
Claire began to cry.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just a quiet release of the grief she had been carrying for days.
Meanwhile, Vincent sat across from Adrian Vale.
The meeting took place in a small private conference room inside a downtown law office.
Adrian was sixty-one, with silver hair, a scar near his chin, and the exhausted expression of a man who had spent too many years looking over his shoulder.
Vincent had not seen him since he was twenty-five.
He remembered Adrian as a traitor.
A thief.
A man his uncle Raymond had warned him never to trust.
Now Adrian sat across from him holding a worn leather briefcase.
“You look like your father,” Adrian said.
Vincent didn't respond.
Adrian smiled sadly.
“Except Richard knew when to listen.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“You contacted my wife.”
“Yes.”
“You told her Vanessa was trying to interfere with my daughter's identity.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian opened the briefcase.
“Because your father made me promise to protect his grandchildren from what this family might become.”
Vincent stared at him.
“My father died before I married Claire.”
“He knew you would eventually have children.”
Adrian removed a sealed envelope.
Richard Cole's handwriting covered the front.
For Vincent, when the truth can no longer be hidden.
Vincent recognized the writing immediately.
His throat tightened.
Adrian slid the envelope across the table.
“Your father discovered that Raymond was stealing from the companies. But Raymond wasn't acting alone.”
“Vanessa was a teenager.”
“She was nineteen when the first fraudulent distributions began.”
Vincent shook his head.
“She was in college.”
“And Raymond taught her how to use the family trust.”
Adrian's eyes darkened.
“Your father wanted to remove both of them from financial control. Then he became ill.”
“Cancer.”
“That's what the official records say.”
Vincent went still.
“What are you implying?”
“I'm saying your father requested an independent review of his medical treatment before he died.”
Vincent's heart pounded.
“Did someone hurt him?”
“I don't know. The review was never completed.”
“Why?”
“Because Raymond gained control of the relevant records.”
Vincent stared at the envelope.
Adrian continued.
“Richard created a safeguard. He couldn't immediately dissolve the trust without triggering a legal battle. But he could require an independent audit when the next generation arrived.”
“My daughter.”
“Yes.”
“And Vanessa knew.”
“She knew that a legally recognized grandchild would force the books open.”
Vincent remembered Claire asking about the paternity request.
He finally understood why someone might want to cast doubt on the child's legal status.
Adrian leaned closer.
“Your sister doesn't need your daughter to disappear. She needs the trust administrator to question whether the child qualifies under the agreement.”
Vincent looked down.
“She accused Claire of stealing.”
“Because if Claire lost your trust, Vanessa believed she could persuade you to challenge the child's paternity.”
Vincent felt physically ill.
“She was using my own suspicion against me.”
Adrian nodded.
“And you made it easy.”
The words landed without mercy.
Vincent accepted them.
At 10:26 p.m., Vanessa arrived at the mansion.
She found her brother standing beside the fireplace.
“Where have you been?” she asked.
Vincent turned.
“Talking to Adrian Vale.”
Her face went white.
For a moment, she looked almost like a frightened child.
Then she recovered.
“That man is a liar.”
“He gave me Dad's letter.”
Vanessa stared.
Vincent held up the envelope.
“He explained the trust.”
She took a step back.
“You have no idea what you're dealing with.”
“Then tell me.”
“Vincent—”
“Tell me why you framed my wife.”
Her eyes filled.
“I was protecting us.”
“From what?”
“From losing everything!”
The words burst out of her.
Vincent didn't move.
Vanessa pressed a hand over her mouth.
Then she whispered, “You think you built this empire. You think you saved this family.”
Her voice trembled with anger.
“But while you were making deals and giving orders, I was keeping the books from collapsing.”
“By stealing?”
“By moving money where it needed to go.”
“Into your own accounts?”
She looked away.
Vincent stepped closer.
“You put Claire in danger.”
“I never wanted her hurt.”
“You altered her medical records.”
“I didn't do that.”
“Northstar was your contractor.”
“Mercer handled those arrangements.”
“Under your authorization.”
Vanessa's breathing quickened.
Vincent stared at her.
“Where is Mercer?”
“I don't know.”
“Vanessa.”
“I don't know!”
She backed toward the door.
Then she said something that made Vincent stop.
“You're asking the wrong question.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“What question should I ask?”
She looked at the envelope in his hand.
“Ask Adrian why your father was so desperate to protect a child who hadn't even been born.”
Vincent frowned.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
Vanessa's lips trembled.
“Ask him what happened to the first baby.”
