Chapter 4 - MY MOTHER'S VOICE
I stared at the message until the words blurred.
Mia noticed.
“What?”
I turned the screen toward her.
For the first time since meeting her, she looked genuinely terrified.
“That's impossible.”
“Apparently impossible is popular in my family.”
“Claire, I swear I didn't send those.”
“I know.”
The refrigeration unit hummed around us.
Outside the room, footsteps passed.
Mia lowered her voice.
“There are only three people who could access the security network without me noticing.”
“Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“The captain?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Mia hesitated.
“My mother.”
Vanessa.
Before I could answer, a voice came through the overhead speaker.
Not Ethan.
A woman's voice.
“Claire.”
Every hair on my arms stood up.
I knew that voice.
Older.
Rougher.
But I knew it.
“Mom?”
Mia grabbed my wrist.
The speaker crackled.
“Sweetheart, listen carefully. You have been lied to by everyone around you.”
Tears burned my eyes.
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“You've been alive for eight years!”
“I know.”
“You let me bury you!”
“I know.”
“You let me think I had no mother!”
Silence.
Then Laura Whitmore whispered:
“I did it to keep you alive.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That's what everyone keeps saying while trying to control my life.”
“Claire, Ethan cannot be allowed to inherit your trust.”
“He's planning to murder me!”
“I know.”
The simplicity of her answer stopped me.
“How long have you known?”
“Long enough.”
My chest tightened.
“You knew before the wedding?”
No answer.
That was an answer.
I backed away from the speaker.
“You let me marry him.”
“I needed proof.”
I felt something inside me break.
Mia closed her eyes.
Laura continued.
“Your father made a deal with Gregory Harrow years ago. When I discovered it, Charles threatened to destroy anyone I loved. I staged my death and spent eight years building a case.”
“So you used me?”
“I protected you.”
“You turned me into bait.”
“I gave you a chance to finish something I couldn't.”
I stared at the speaker in disbelief.
“You sound exactly like Dad.”
The speaker went silent.
Then my phone received a file.
An audio recording.
I pressed play.
My father's voice filled the cold room.
“Once Claire is gone, Ethan gets the marital inheritance. He transfers the Whitmore voting shares to Gregory, Gregory signs them back to me, and we clean the rest offshore.”
Another man spoke.
Gregory.
“And Ethan?”
My father laughed.
“He'll be arrested for Claire's murder.”
My breath caught.
Even Ethan was being betrayed.
Then Vanessa's voice:
“What about Mia?”
My father answered:
“If she's actually alive, kill her too.”
The recording ended.
Mia looked sick.
“So Ethan isn't the final plan,” I whispered.
“No.”
My phone buzzed again.
11:02 P.M.
Forty-five minutes until the death time written in the fake report.
Then another message.
GO TO SUITE 3. YOUR FATHER IS WAITING.
I stared at it.
“My father isn't on this yacht.”
Mia looked toward the door.
“You're sure?”
I thought of boarding three days earlier.
My father's helicopter had landed briefly on the upper deck to deliver wedding gifts.
He had hugged Ethan.
Kissed my forehead.
Then supposedly flown back to New York.
Mia slowly opened the refrigerated room door.
The hallway was empty.
We reached Suite 3 six minutes later.
The door stood open.
Inside, a man sat with his back to us.
Silver hair.
Navy suit.
A glass of bourbon in his hand.
My father turned around.
“Claire.”
He smiled.
“Thank God you're all right.”
Then he looked at Mia.
May you like
And his expression changed.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “she wasn't supposed to survive.”
