Chapter 4 - MY MOTHER'S SECRET
I called my mother before sunrise.
She answered immediately.
“Claire?”
“Were you at my house the night of the fire?”
Silence.
It lasted only three seconds.
But I heard enough.
“Yes.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Why?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
“Your father.”
I looked at Dad, who was standing by the hotel window.
“What does that mean?”
Mom began crying.
“I should have told you years ago.”
Dad reached for the phone.
“Diane.”
“No,” I said. “Let her speak.”
Mom took a breath.
“Your grandmother discovered that someone had been stealing money from the foundation. She suspected your father was getting close to the truth.”
Dad looked stunned.
“That isn't possible.”
“It happened.”
“Why would I steal from it?”
“You didn't.”
Mom's voice cracked.
“You were being framed.”
I felt the room spin.
“By whom?”
“The Pierce family.”
Dad closed his eyes.
Mom continued.
“They needed your father removed from the investigation. So they created fake financial records connecting him to the missing money.”
“Why?”
“Because your father was the only person who knew where the original records were.”
I looked at Ryan.
“And the fire?”
Mom hesitated.
“Your grandmother hid the original records inside your house.”
My heart stopped.
“Where?”
“She never told me.”
“Then why were you there?”
“Because I found out Natalie had been asking questions.”
Mom lowered her voice.
“I went to warn you.”
“What happened?”
“I arrived too late.”
I could hear her crying.
“Ryan was already there.”
I looked at him.
He didn't deny it.
Mom continued.
“Someone had poured gasoline near the back entrance.”
I remembered the smell.
My stomach turned.
“Did you see who?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Mom whispered:
“Ethan Pierce.”
Ryan looked down.
I stared at him.
“You knew.”
“I saw him,” Ryan said. “But I didn't know who he was.”
“You knew enough to tell me.”
“I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“That if I told you, they would come after you.”
I almost laughed.
“They already came after me.”
Ryan looked devastated.
“I know.”
Mom suddenly said, “Claire, listen to me.”
Her voice changed.
“Your grandmother's records weren't the only thing hidden in that house.”
“What else?”
“The original trust agreement.”
Dad turned sharply.
“What?”
Mom said, “The trust wasn't created for the family.”
“Then who was it for?”
“For the victims.”
The words stunned me.
My grandmother had created a trust using recovered money.
Money that had been stolen from families through the foundation.
The trust was designed to return that money.
But there was one condition.
Only a descendant of the Bennett family could activate it.
That descendant was me.
And if I had a child, control would eventually pass to my child.
That explained everything.
The affair.
The pressure.
The questions about my pregnancy.
The fire.
But one thing still didn't make sense.
“Why did Natalie marry into this?”
Ryan answered quietly.
“She didn't.”
I looked at him.
“She planned to.”
He showed me a document on his phone.
A marriage license application.
Ryan and Natalie.
Dated six weeks before the fire.
I felt something inside me break.
Our marriage had already been replaced on paper before I even knew it was ending.
Then Dad noticed something.
The application had been signed by a witness.
Ethan Pierce.
The man everyone believed was dead.
Dad stood.
“We're going to Chicago.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
I looked at Ryan.
“First, we're going to find Ethan.”
May you like
Because if he was alive, he knew exactly what happened the night my house burned.
And I wanted to hear the truth from the man who had been hiding behind it.
