Chapter 10 - THE LETTER MY FATHER LEFT BEHIND
Noah caught Derek before he reached the table.
“Get off me!”
Derek fought wildly now.
Not angrily.
Desperately.
That frightened me more.
Daniel grabbed the envelope.
“Claire.”
I stared at my father’s handwriting.
Eight years disappeared.
I was pregnant again.
Sitting at his kitchen table.
Listening to him tell me not to surrender.
Dad had always written my name with the same strange loop in the C.
This was real.
My hands shook as I took the envelope.
Derek stopped fighting.
“Claire.”
I looked at him.
“Don’t open it.”
Nobody moved.
My husband—the man who had spent the evening threatening me, humiliating my daughter, defending his mistress, and denying hundreds of thousands of dollars in suspicious transfers—was begging me.
That told me everything I needed to know.
I opened it.
Inside were three handwritten pages.
The first line made my vision blur.
Claire, if you are reading this, I was right about the money.
I sat down.
Sophie climbed into the chair beside me.
Daniel crouched near us.
I kept reading.
Dad had traced North Ridge Solutions through two shell companies.
One account eventually connected to a person he identified only as D.
He hadn’t written Derek’s full name.
But he had written something worse.
D has access to Claire’s laptop and home.
I looked up.
Derek was staring at the floor.
The letter said my father planned to meet a woman named Elena, who claimed she had documents proving who controlled the accounts.
Elena.
Eight years ago.
Before Derek supposedly built his company.
Before his Scottsdale house.
Before Vanessa.
She had been there from the beginning.
My father’s final paragraph was short.
If I do not come back tonight, do not trust the first story you hear. And Claire must know one thing: someone close to her has been planning this for longer than she realizes.
My hands went numb.
Luke took the letter.
Daniel opened the folders.
Marcus examined the bank records.
Ethan plugged in the flash drive.
Derek suddenly stopped struggling.
He became perfectly calm.
Too calm.
“You’re making a mistake.”
I looked at him.
“What mistake?”
“Believing your father.”
Noah released his arm.
Derek straightened his jacket.
“Your father hated me.”
“My father helped pay for our wedding.”
“He changed.”
“After my company collapsed?”
Derek said nothing.
The television suddenly turned on by itself.
Everyone jumped.
The screen went black.
Then a live video appeared.
A woman sat in a dimly lit room.
Dark hair.
Maybe late forties.
I had never seen her before.
But Vanessa whispered immediately.
“Elena.”
Derek stumbled backward.
The woman on the screen looked directly into the camera.
“Claire?”
My entire body went cold.
She could see us.
Ethan moved toward the laptop.
“Don’t touch anything,” Elena said.
He stopped.
She smiled faintly.
“If you’re seeing this, Observer worked.”
Luke stepped closer to the television.
“Where are you?”
Elena ignored him.
She looked at Derek.
“I told you this day would come.”
Derek’s face twisted.
“You crazy—”
“I wouldn’t finish that sentence.”
He stopped.
Elena turned back to me.
“I’m sorry about Sophie.”
My blood froze.
“How do you know my daughter?”
“I’ve known about her since before she was born.”
The room seemed to shrink.
I wrapped my arm around Sophie.
“What do you want?”
“To keep you alive long enough to understand what happened.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“What happened to Claire’s father?”
Elena’s expression changed.
For the first time, she looked afraid.
“That is not the first question you should ask.”
“What is?”
She looked directly at me.
“Ask Derek why your father’s car crash report lists one passenger.”
I frowned.
“He was alone.”
“No.”
Luke went still.
Elena continued.
“Your father wasn’t alone when the car left Philadelphia.”
Derek shook his head.
“Stop.”
“Someone was in that vehicle with him.”
My hands turned cold.
“Who?”
Elena opened her mouth.
Then the video cut out.
The television went black.
Ethan immediately started typing.
“I lost the connection.”
“Get it back.”
“I’m trying.”
Derek backed toward the front door.
This time, nobody stopped him.
I was too busy staring at the black screen.
Then the doorbell rang.
Once.
Softly.
We all turned.
No cars had entered the driveway.
No footsteps had crossed the porch.
No one should have been outside.
Noah approached the door.
Luke raised a hand.
“Wait.”
The doorbell rang again.
Sophie whispered, “Mommy…”
I held her tighter.
Noah looked through the peephole.
His face changed.
“What?” Daniel asked.
Noah didn’t answer.
He slowly unlocked the door.
There was nobody there.
Only a small brown package sitting on the porch.
My name was written across the top.
CLAIRE.
No return address.
No postage.
Someone had placed it there while we were watching Elena.
Luke carried it inside.
Daniel opened it carefully.
Inside was an old photograph.
My father stood beside his car on the night he died.
Rain covered the windshield.
A timestamp in the corner read 10:46 p.m.
And sitting in the passenger seat was a woman.
I recognized her immediately.
So did all five of my brothers.
Because she wasn’t Elena.
She was our mother.
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On the back of the photograph, someone had written one sentence:
ASK HER WHY SHE NEVER TOLD YOU SHE SURVIVED.
