Chapter 3 - THE NIGHT OF THE CALL
Mark refused to discuss the call.
That was the first thing Claire noticed.
The second was how quickly he became angry.
“Your father was sick,” he said. “He was paranoid.”
“Why did he call you?”
“I don't remember.”
“You just admitted there was a call.”
“I said I don't remember.”
Claire watched him through the phone.
“You're lying.”
Mark laughed.
“You've been listening to Samuel.”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“My father.”
Mark went silent.
Claire could almost hear him calculating his next answer.
Finally he said:
“Come home.”
“No.”
“We need to talk face-to-face.”
“Why?”
“Because you're my wife.”
“That doesn't answer the question.”
Mark's voice became cold.
“Claire, you have no idea what you're dealing with.”
She froze.
“What does that mean?”
He ended the call.
Claire immediately drove back to Samuel's office.
He was waiting.
She told him everything.
Samuel looked troubled.
“Your father called Mark eleven days before he died.”
“What did they discuss?”
“We don't know.”
“You said my father had records.”
“He did.”
“Then find them.”
Samuel nodded.
He opened a secure database.
Within minutes, he found an audio file.
The title:
CALL_11_DAYS.
Claire stared.
“Play it.”
Samuel hesitated.
Then pressed the button.
Her father's voice filled the room.
“Mark, I'm giving you one chance.”
Mark answered:
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“I never touched your company.”
“You didn't have to.”
Silence.
Then her father said:
“You married my daughter because of Northbridge.”
Claire covered her mouth.
Mark's voice became angry.
“That isn't true.”
“Then prove it.”
Another pause.
Her father continued:
“I know about the transfers.”
Mark said nothing.
“I know about the forged documents.”
Still nothing.
“And I know Patricia has been meeting with Voss.”
Mark finally whispered:
“You don't understand.”
Her father answered:
“I understand perfectly.”
The recording ended.
Claire sat frozen.
Samuel looked at her.
“There's more.”
He played another file.
This one was recorded later that same night.
Mark's voice.
“We have to move the plan forward.”
Patricia answered:
“How?”
“Claire can't know.”
“She doesn't.”
“She will if he talks.”
“What do you want me to do?”
A pause.
Then Patricia said:
“Make sure he doesn't.”
The recording stopped.
Claire stared at Samuel.
“What does that mean?”
Samuel didn't answer.
Claire's father had died eleven days later.
Officially, from a sudden cardiac event.
Claire remembered the hospital.
The doctors.
The funeral.
Everything had seemed natural.
But now she wondered.
“Was Dad murdered?”
Samuel looked at her.
“We don't know.”
“Then find out.”
He opened another file.
Medical records.
Claire's father had been admitted to the hospital at 2:17 a.m.
His blood work showed traces of a medication.
One he had never been prescribed.
Claire's breathing stopped.
“What is that?”
Samuel answered:
“A sedative.”
“Could it have killed him?”
“By itself? Probably not.”
“Then why was it there?”
“To make him easier to control.”
Claire stared at the screen.
“Who ordered it?”
Samuel pointed to the hospital authorization.
A private physician had signed it.
Dr. Helen Voss.
Claire's eyes widened.
“Gerald Voss's wife?”
Samuel nodded.
“She worked at the hospital.”
“But Gerald was dead.”
“Yes.”
Claire suddenly remembered something.
Her father had once told her that Gerald Voss had a daughter.
Helen.
Claire asked:
“Did Helen inherit anything?”
“Thirty percent of Gerald's shares.”
Claire stared.
“Then why is Mark's family fighting for Northbridge?”
Samuel looked at her.
“Because Helen's shares disappeared.”
“When?”
“Two weeks before your father's death.”
“Where did they go?”
Samuel opened the transfer record.
Claire read the beneficiary.
Her stomach dropped.
The shares had been transferred into a holding company.
The owner was:
Mark Bennett.
Claire couldn't breathe.
Her husband already owned part of Northbridge.
And he had never told her.
Then Samuel noticed something else.
The transfer required two witnesses.
One was Patricia.
The other was Claire.
Claire stared at the forged signature.
“I never signed this.”
Samuel nodded.
“I know.”
Claire looked at the date.
It was the day Mark had taken her to a hotel for their anniversary.
She remembered the evening.
She had been drinking champagne.
Mark had asked her to sign some "insurance paperwork."
She had trusted him.
Samuel closed his eyes.
“That may be how they got your signature.”
Claire felt sick.
Then her phone rang.
Mark.
She answered.
He didn't speak.
She heard breathing.
Then a whisper.
“Claire…”
“What?”
“You need to stop asking questions.”
“Or what?”
Silence.
Then Mark said:
“Or you'll end up like your father.”
The call ended.
Claire stared at Samuel.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Samuel stood.
“We need to move you somewhere safe.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
“Claire—”
“I'm done running.”
She picked up the file.
“If Mark wants a war, he can have one.”
Samuel looked at her.
“Then we need to make sure he doesn't know we're ready.”
Claire smiled.
For the first time since her father's funeral, she wasn't afraid.
She was furious.
And somewhere across town, Mark received a message from his mother.
SHE KNOWS ABOUT THE TRANSFER.
May you like
Mark replied:
THEN WE MOVE TONIGHT.
