My Aunt’s Second Face
Chapter 09 - My Aunt’s Second Face
Rebecca looked at the phone as though it had accused her of murder.
“That is ridiculous.”
Mason repeated what he had found.
The removal order came from an internal staff account assigned to Rebecca.
Timestamped forty-three minutes before Claire arrived at the gala.
Rebecca stood.
“I didn’t send it.”
Claire searched her face.
“Who has access?”
“My assistant.”
“Anyone else?”
“Malcolm’s office can override executive accounts.”
Elena folded her arms.
“Convenient.”
Rebecca turned on her.
“I helped your mother.”
“You helped mine disappear. That does not make you incapable of lying.”
The room changed.
Claire stepped between them.
“Stop.”
Both women went quiet.
Claire looked at her aunt.
“Did you know Elena was coming?”
Rebecca hesitated.
That was enough.
“Yes.”
Claire felt another fracture.
“How?”
“Rosa called me last week.”
“You still talk to her?”
“Once or twice a year.”
Elena stared at her.
“My mother told me she hadn’t spoken to you in a decade.”
Rebecca looked away.
Elena’s voice sharpened.
“Why would she lie?”
Rebecca sat down slowly.
“Because she was protecting me.”
“From Malcolm?”
“No.”
Claire felt the air leave the room.
“From what?”
Rebecca’s hands trembled.
“From the truth about the foundation.”
Malcolm had not built the Harrington Foundation alone.
Catherine had.
At least at first.
The early money came from a trust created by Claire’s maternal grandfather.
Malcolm later expanded the foundation, attached his name to everything, and became its public face.
But according to Rebecca, he had also used the charity to build political relationships and push private development deals.
Rosa had discovered transfers.
Catherine had confronted him.
Rebecca had helped hide the irregularities for years.
Claire stared at her.
“You helped him?”
“I thought I was protecting Catherine’s work.”
“There is that word again.”
Rebecca flinched.
“I was afraid if the foundation collapsed, the shelters and clinics would lose funding.”
“So you covered for him.”
“At first.”
“How long?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled with shame.
“Too long.”
Elena shook her head.
“My mother thought you were brave.”
“I wasn’t.”
Claire finally understood why Rebecca had always hated Malcolm so openly.
Not because she had been innocent.
Because guilt had hardened into anger.
“Did you order Elena removed?”
“No.”
“Can you prove it?”
“No.”
The honesty surprised Claire.
Rebecca continued.
“But I know who can access my account.”
“Who?”
“Daniel Price.”
Claire knew the name.
Malcolm’s chief of staff.
A quiet man who had worked for him twenty-two years.
The second suited man from the rooftop.
The one holding Mason after the confrontation.
Claire remembered his face.
Calm.
Concerned.
Invisible in the way powerful men often preferred their assistants to be.
Mason cursed softly over the phone.
“I was standing next to him the whole time.”
Adrian frowned.
“He helped you.”
“Or made sure I didn’t talk.”
Rebecca looked at Claire.
“Daniel knows everything Malcolm has done.”
Elena went pale.
“My mother knew him.”
Claire turned.
“How?”
“He was the one who drove us to Harbor House.”
The room fell silent.
Another piece moved.
Daniel had not been Malcolm’s loyal servant all those years.
Or not only that.
He had been present at the beginning.
Claire reached for her coat.
Adrian stood.
“Where are you going?”
“To ask Daniel which side he is actually on.”
Rebecca looked terrified.
“Claire, be careful.”
Claire paused at the door.
She looked back at all of them.
Her aunt.
Her husband.
The woman who might be her sister.
Everyone had lied.
Some out of fear.
Some out of love.
Some for power.
Claire was done guessing which was which.
“I’m not asking anyone to protect me anymore,” she said.
Then her phone rang.
Daniel Price.
As if he knew she was coming.
Claire answered.
His first words were barely audible.
“Your father knows you found Catherine’s box.”
Claire stopped.
May you like
“How?”
“Because I told him.”
