Chapter 2 - The Christmas Gift He Never Opened
Claudia had imagined leaving Sebastian a hundred times.
In every version, there had been shouting.
Accusations.
Maybe a shattered glass.
Perhaps the satisfying sound of a wedding ring striking polished marble.
Reality was quieter.
“Somewhere safe,” Claudia told Sophie.
Her daughter remained on the bottom stair.
“Are we coming back?”
That question hurt more than Claudia expected.
She could have lied.
Instead, she crossed the room and lowered herself carefully until they were nearly eye level.
“I don’t know.”
Sophie looked toward the front windows.
“Because Dad went to Porsche?”
Claudia froze.
Children were always listening.
“When did you hear that name?”
Sophie shrugged, but her eyes dropped.
“His phone says it a lot.”
Claudia swallowed.
Sophie continued quietly.
“Sometimes when we’re watching movies.”
There it was.
A whole year of disappointment compressed into eight words.
Claudia hugged her.
“Pack warm clothes. Your toothbrush. Mr. Bun.”
Sophie looked down at the battered stuffed rabbit in her arms.
“He was already coming.”
Twenty minutes later, Claudia opened the safe in Sebastian’s study.
She did not take his money.
She took her passport, Sophie’s documents, medical records, insurance information, a flash drive, and a thick envelope she had hidden behind old tax files three weeks earlier.
Inside were copies of everything.
Bank transfers.
Hotel receipts.
Screenshots from Sebastian’s second phone.
Corporate records connecting Porsche to Dunham Strategic Consulting.
And one photograph that Claudia still hated looking at.
Sebastian and Porsche leaving a Manhattan hotel together at 1:14 in the morning.
Claudia had hired a private investigator after finding the perfume.
She had expected adultery.
She had discovered something potentially worse.
Money was disappearing from Sebastian’s company.
Porsche appeared to be connected to it.
Claudia had not yet determined whether Sebastian was her lover, her accomplice, or her fool.
Tonight, it no longer mattered.
At 7:02, Claudia called Elena Reeves.
Her older sister answered on the second ring.
“Merry Christmas, baby mama.”
“Elena.”
Silence.
Her sister knew immediately.
“What happened?”
“I need somewhere to go.”
“Come.”
No questions.
No lecture.
No hesitation.
Elena lived ninety minutes north in Litchfield County, in an old farmhouse Claudia had once teased her for buying.
Tonight it sounded like sanctuary.
“You shouldn’t drive,” Elena said.
“I know.”
“I’m sending Daniel.”
Elena’s husband arrived forty-eight minutes later in a four-wheel-drive SUV.
By then, Claudia had packed two suitcases.
Sophie stood beside them in her cream winter coat.
Before leaving, she suddenly ran upstairs.
She returned carrying the wrapped present she had planned to give Sebastian.
“You’re bringing that?”
Sophie shook her head.
She placed it beneath the Christmas tree.
“For Dad.”
Claudia’s throat tightened.
They left at 8:04.
At 8:17, Sebastian texted.
Running late. Road is terrible. Don’t wait for me.
Claudia stared at the message.
Then turned off her phone.
What she did not know was that Sebastian was not with Porsche.
Not yet.
He was standing beside an abandoned Mercedes on the Merritt Parkway.
And Porsche Dunham was nowhere in sight.
He had found the car exactly where she had said it would be.
Driver’s door unlocked.
Hazard lights flashing.
No footprints except those already being erased by snow.
He called her.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Sebastian noticed something on the passenger seat.
A red leather folder.
He opened it.
Inside were photocopies of invoices from Navarro Maritime Security.
Invoices he had never approved.
The first was for $340,000.
The second was $580,000.
The third exceeded $1.2 million.
All authorized electronically under Sebastian’s credentials.
His stomach turned cold.
A vehicle slowed behind him.
Headlights filled the Mercedes.
Sebastian reached beneath his coat instinctively.
But it was a state trooper.
Twenty minutes later, Sebastian was driving home while repeatedly calling Porsche.
Straight to voicemail.
He arrived at 9:31.
The house was silent.
“Claudia?”
No answer.
“Sophie?”
He checked the kitchen.
Bedroom.
Guest rooms.
Then he saw the empty spaces in Claudia’s closet.
For the first time in years, Sebastian felt genuine panic.
He called her.
Off.
Again.
Off.
He found the envelope on his desk.
His name was written across it.
Inside was Claudia’s wedding ring.
Nothing else.
Sebastian stared at it for a long time.
Then he noticed Sophie’s gift beneath the tree.
He sat down on the rug and opened it.
Inside was a navy-blue coffee mug painted unevenly by hand.
Across the front, Sophie had written:
BEST DAD, EVEN WHEN YOU’RE BUSY.
Sebastian stopped breathing.
Beneath it was a folded card.
He opened it.
Sophie’s handwriting filled half the page.
Dear Dad,
I know the baby will need you more when he comes, so I’m trying not to bother you so much. Mom says love gets bigger and doesn’t run out. I hope she’s right.
Sebastian read it twice.
Then a third time.
He had never struck his daughter.
Never screamed at her.
Never deliberately made her feel unwanted.
He had done something more ordinary.
He had made her believe she needed less love.
His phone rang.
Porsche.
Sebastian answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
A woman breathed on the other end.
Then Porsche whispered:
“Sebastian, don’t go to the police.”
His eyes hardened.
“Why?”
“Because the money Claudia found is only the beginning.”
“How do you know what Claudia found?”
Silence.
Sebastian stood.
“Porsche.”
When she answered, her voice was shaking.
“Because I was the one who made sure she found it.”
The call disconnected.
And forty miles away, Claudia suddenly doubled over in the passenger seat of Daniel’s SUV.
Her hand flew to her stomach.
“Claudia?”
She stared down.
May you like
Warm liquid spread across her dress.
Her water had broken.
