The Questions Claire Hid
Chapter 03 - The Questions Claire Hid
Ethan called the police while Marcus checked the hospital hallway.
Vivian stood near the windows, rigid and silent. Claire watched the reflection in the glass rather than looking directly at her.
For years, Claire had believed Vivian’s stillness came from arrogance.
Now she wondered whether it came from practice.
“What was on the laptop?” Ethan asked after ending the call.
Claire hesitated.
“Financial records.”
“From where?”
“The foundation.”
Ethan lowered his voice. “You accessed private company records?”
“I didn’t steal them. They were sent to me.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know.”
The first email had arrived six weeks earlier from an anonymous account. It contained a list of apartment buildings supposedly renovated through the Bennett Foundation’s affordable-housing program.
Claire recognized two addresses.
As a nurse working with low-income families, she had visited those buildings. The hallways were moldy. The elevators rarely worked. One building had gone without reliable heat for nearly a month.
Yet the foundation’s records claimed millions had been spent repairing them.
Claire had started asking questions.
Then the warnings began.
A dead phone line calling at midnight.
A car following her from work.
A photograph of Claire and Ethan slipped beneath their front door with a black line drawn between them.
“I thought telling you would put you in danger,” she said.
Ethan stared at her.
“You’re my wife.”
“And you’re a Bennett.”
The words hurt him. She saw it immediately.
But she could not take them back.
Vivian finally spoke.
“Claire had reason to be cautious.”
Ethan turned on her. “You don’t get to defend her after terrorizing her.”
“I frightened her because I was frightened.”
“Of Lauren?”
Vivian’s expression did not change, but her silence answered him.
Ethan walked to the foot of the bed.
“My sister runs donor relations. She doesn’t control repair contracts.”
“She controls the people who do,” Marcus said.
He removed a small notebook from his pocket.
“Three vendors received more than eleven million dollars from the foundation. All three companies lead back to the same private trust.”
“Whose trust?”
Marcus looked directly at Vivian.
“Yours.”
Claire felt the room tilt.
Vivian did not deny it.
Ethan’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“You told us Father created that trust.”
“He did.”
“Father has been dead for nine years.”
“Yes.”
“Then who has been moving the money?”
Vivian looked toward the hallway.
“The person who knew I would take the blame.”
A nurse entered before she could say more.
She carried a clipboard, but her eyes never met Claire’s.
“We have authorization to transfer Mrs. Bennett to another facility.”
Ethan frowned. “No one authorized a transfer.”
The nurse checked the page.
“It was requested by her spouse.”
She turned the clipboard around.
May you like
At the bottom was Ethan’s signature.
Again.
