Chapter 9 - THE LITTLE GIRL THEY TRIED TO USE
Lily Harper had become the most important witness in Michael Bennett's life.
That fact terrified Grace.
She knew her daughter had seen Claire being forced into Victor's car.
She knew Richard's associates had been watching their movements.
And she knew that in Michael's world, children sometimes became bargaining chips in conflicts they did not understand.
“I'm taking Lily away,” Grace announced.
Michael looked up from his desk.
“Where?”
“Somewhere you don't need to know.”
Her words hurt.
He accepted them.
“You're right.”
Grace blinked.
“I am?”
“Yes. Lily shouldn't have to live under my protection simply because she told the truth.”
He offered to cover the costs of an independent relocation and legal assistance without requiring Grace to disclose their new address to him.
She hesitated.
Then nodded.
“Thank you.”
But Lily was less cooperative.
She stood beside her mother with her backpack over one shoulder and her favorite blue picture book clutched against her chest.
“Are we leaving Mr. Bennett?”
“For a little while, sweetheart.”
“Because I saw the bad man?”
“No.”
Grace knelt.
“Because grown-ups have to make sure everyone is safe.”
Lily looked at Michael.
“Will you be lonely again?”
His throat tightened.
“I have Walter.”
Lily considered that.
“Walter doesn't smile very much.”
From the doorway, Walter cleared his throat.
“I smile occasionally.”
“Nobody sees it.”
Michael laughed.
Then Lily walked toward him and placed a drawing on his lap.
It showed a house.
A large yellow sun.
Three people standing beside a person in a wheelchair.
At the bottom, in uneven letters, she had written:
YOU ARE STILL OUR FRIEND.
Michael looked at the picture for a long time.
“Thank you, Lily.”
She hugged him.
Then whispered:
“You don't have to marry me anymore. You can marry Miss Claire.”
Michael smiled sadly.
“I hope she'll still want to.”
Lily looked offended.
“Of course she will. She was crying because the bad man took her away.”
Sometimes six-year-olds saw through complications that adults spent entire fortunes creating.
After Grace and Lily left, the investigation continued.
Independent accountants discovered that someone had opened several accounts using personal information taken from Thomas Harper's employment files.
One account listed Grace as an authorized beneficiary.
Another listed Lily.
Grace knew nothing about either.
The accounts had been used to conceal payments from the foundation.
Michael immediately contacted her attorney.
Richard and Victor had apparently intended to implicate Thomas's family if the financial investigation ever reached the hidden transfers.
The discovery made Michael sick.
Grace had lost her husband.
She had struggled to raise their daughter.
And now the people responsible for the suspicious payments were trying to make them look like participants.
Investigators traced the accounts to a financial administrator employed by Northpoint.
The administrator agreed to cooperate.
His testimony linked the accounts to Victor and Richard.
Then he revealed something that changed the investigation again.
Richard had intended to use the false accounts to accuse Michael of directing charitable money toward a housekeeper with whom he supposedly had an inappropriate relationship.
Michael stared at the statement.
“They were going to use Grace?”
“Yes,” Nora said.
“And Lily?”
“Her name would have appeared in the records.”
Michael closed his eyes.
Richard was willing to destroy an innocent mother and daughter to gain control of the foundation.
Then Nora's phone rang.
She listened carefully.
When she ended the call, her expression had changed.
“The investigators reopened the warehouse-fire case.”
Michael looked up.
“Why?”
“They found evidence that the fire may have been deliberately set.”
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For eighteen months, Grace had believed Thomas died in an accident.
Now investigators had reason to believe the fire that killed her husband had been part of the same conspiracy.
