Chapter 4
The police returned before breakfast was over.
Lily sat on the couch wearing pink pajamas while an officer asked her questions gently.
Had Grandma ever asked to pick her up from school?
No.
Had Grandma ever asked for Mommy’s passwords?
No.
Had Daddy ever used Mommy’s phone?
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped.
The officer looked at me.
“When?”
Lily swung her feet.
“Daddy knows Mommy’s code. He uses her phone when his dies.”
Ryan knew my passcode.
Of course he did.
We had been married eight years.
I knew his too.
That had once felt normal.
Now it felt like leaving every door in my life unlocked.
The school account login had happened at 6:13 p.m.
That was after I came home from the doctor.
Before Diane slapped me.
Ryan had been in the house.
So had Diane.
I called him.
He sounded exhausted.
“Claire.”
“Did you add your mother to Lily’s school pickup list?”
“What?”
“Yesterday at six thirteen.”
“No.”
“You were here.”
“So were you.”
“Using my account.”
“I said no.”
“Who knows my passcode?”
Silence.
“Ryan.”
“My mother might.”
The answer was so quiet I almost missed it.
“How?”
“She’s seen you unlock your phone.”
“You’re telling me your mother memorized my passcode?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try again.”
“Claire, I swear to God, I didn’t change the school account.”
“Did you give her my code?”
“No.”
“Did you give her access to my email?”
“No.”
“Did you ever tell her how to log into my accounts?”
“No.”
I wanted to believe him.
But belief had become dangerous.
The detective held out his hand.
I put the call on speaker.
“Mr. Harrington,” he said, “this is Detective Morgan. We’d like you to come to the station.”
Ryan exhaled.
“Am I under arrest?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll call my lawyer.”
“That’s your right.”
“I’ll be there in an hour.”
He hung up.
Detective Morgan looked at me.
“Change every password.”
“I already started.”
“Banking too.”
That stopped me.
“My bank accounts?”
“Everything.”
I opened my banking app.
My checking account was fine.
Savings.
Fine.
Then I checked the college account I had opened for Lily.
Balance: $127.43.
I stared at it.
There had been more than forty thousand dollars there.
“No.”
Dad came beside me.
“What?”
I turned the phone.
His jaw tightened.
“Check transactions.”
A transfer had been made two weeks earlier.
Forty-two thousand dollars.
Destination: HARRINGTON FAMILY HOLDINGS.
I felt sick.
“That’s Ryan’s company.”
Nathan corrected me.
“Not anymore.”
I looked at him.
He took the phone.
“This transfer needs to be reported.”
“I never approved it.”
“When was the account opened?”
“After Lily was born.”
“Whose names?”
“Mine and Ryan’s.”
Nathan’s expression darkened.
“Then Ryan may have had legal authority to transfer the funds, depending on the account type.”
“Why would he?”
Nobody answered.
I called Ryan again.
This time his lawyer answered.
“This is Andrew Pike.”
“Put my husband on.”
“He’s here.”
“Ask him why forty-two thousand dollars disappeared from our daughter’s college account.”
Silence.
Then Ryan came on.
“Claire.”
“Did you take it?”
He didn’t answer.
I closed my eyes.
“Oh my God.”
“I was going to put it back.”
Dad turned away in disgust.
I gripped the kitchen table.
“Why?”
“I needed liquidity for a company payment.”
“You stole our daughter’s college money.”
“I borrowed it.”
“Without telling me.”
“The company was under pressure.”
“What pressure?”
“I can’t discuss corporate matters.”
I laughed.
“You can’t discuss corporate matters?”
“Not over the phone.”
“You wanted me to end my pregnancy yesterday and today you’re hiding behind corporate confidentiality?”
“That’s not fair.”
“Fair?”
My voice broke.
“You emptied Lily’s college account.”
“I said I was putting it back.”
“When?”
“After a property closing.”
Nathan stepped forward.
“Ask him what property.”
I did.
Ryan went silent.
Nathan held out his hand.
I gave him the phone.
“Ryan, this is Nathan.”
“Nathan.”
“What property closing?”
“My attorney told me not to discuss company business with you.”
“Then tell your attorney that I represent the controlling trust.”
A muffled conversation followed.
Ryan came back.
“It was the Riverside project.”
Nathan’s face hardened.
“There is no Riverside closing.”
Another silence.
“What?”
Nathan opened his laptop.
“The Riverside property has been under foreclosure review for three months.”
Ryan didn’t speak.
Nathan continued.
“Who told you there was a closing?”
“My mother.”
I almost screamed.
Ryan sounded stunned.
“She said we had a buyer.”
“You never checked?”
“She handled the negotiations.”
“You moved your daughter’s college money based on something Diane told you?”
“I thought—”
Nathan cut him off.
“That has been your problem for years.”
Ryan’s voice hardened.
“Don’t lecture me.”
“Then stop behaving like a child.”
The line went dead.
Two hours later, Ryan arrived at the police station with his lawyer.
I didn’t go.
Dad did.
I stayed with Lily.
For the first time all morning, our house was quiet.
I made her pancakes.
She asked if Daddy was coming home.
I said no.
She asked if Grandma was going to jail.
I said I didn’t know.
Then she asked the question I had been dreading.
“Does Daddy love the baby?”
I sat beside her.
“Yes.”
The answer came automatically.
Lily looked at me.
“How do you know?”
I didn’t.
So I corrected myself.
“I think your daddy is confused about a lot of things right now.”
“Grandma says boys make families strong.”
“She’s wrong.”
“Are girls strong?”
I smiled even though my eyes burned.
“Very.”
She considered that.
“Stronger than boys?”
“Sometimes.”
She leaned toward my stomach.
“My sister is strong.”
“Yes.”
“How big is she?”
“About the size of a peach.”
Lily gasped.
“That’s tiny.”
“She’ll grow.”
“I’ll teach her stuff.”
“Like what?”
“How to bite bad grandmas.”
I nearly choked.
“Maybe we teach her something else.”
Lily smiled.
For ten minutes, everything felt normal.
Then the doorbell rang.
I checked the camera.
A woman stood outside.
Maybe thirty-five.
Dark suit.
Dark hair.
She carried a leather folder.
I spoke through the doorbell.
“Can I help you?”
“My name is Rachel Cole. I worked for Thomas Harrington.”
Nathan had never mentioned her.
“What do you want?”
“I need to speak with you about the safe.”
My heart jumped.
“What safe?”
She looked directly into the camera.
“The one under Thomas’s study floor.”
I called Nathan immediately.
He knew the name.
“Do not let her leave.”
“Who is she?”
“Thomas’s former executive assistant.”
“Former?”
“She disappeared two days after he died.”
I looked back at the camera.
Rachel was still standing there.
“Why?”
“We thought Diane paid her to disappear.”
“Did she?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel rang again.
I told Lily to go upstairs with the tablet.
Then I opened the door with the security chain attached.
Rachel looked exhausted.
“I know you have no reason to trust me.”
“You’re right.”
She reached into her folder.
I tensed.
She pulled out a brass key.
“I have the key Thomas moved.”
My skin prickled.
“Why?”
“Because he gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Three days before he died.”
Nathan arrived twenty minutes later.
Rachel sat at the dining table.
She refused coffee.
She kept looking at the windows.
Nathan entered and stopped cold.
“Rachel.”
“Nathan.”
“You vanished.”
“I was scared.”
“Of Diane?”
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“Of what she would do if she knew what Thomas gave me.”
She set the key on the table.
Nathan picked it up.
“Where does it go?”
“Not the house safe.”
I frowned.
“Thomas’s letter said the safe beneath his study floor.”
Rachel nodded.
“There were two.”
Nathan stared at her.
“What?”
“Everyone knew about the floor safe.”
“Diane did too?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Thomas tell Claire to check it?”
Rachel looked at me.
“Because the empty safe was supposed to tell you something.”
“What?”
“That someone had already found it.”
I felt a chill.
“Found what?”
“Evidence.”
She opened her folder.
Inside was a photograph of Diane entering a private medical clinic.
Beside her was a man I recognized.
Dr. Stephen Ward.
My obstetrician.
The doctor who had told me yesterday that I was carrying a girl.
I stared at the photo.
“No.”
Rachel slid another paper toward me.
It was an invoice.
CONSULTING SERVICES.
$180,000.
Paid from Harrington Development.
To Stephen Ward, M.D.
“What is this?”
Rachel’s voice shook.
“Thomas discovered Diane was paying doctors.”
“For what?”
“To obtain medical information about family members.”
My stomach tightened.
“That’s illegal.”
“Yes.”
Nathan looked at the date.
“This started before Claire got pregnant with Lily.”
Rachel nodded.
I couldn’t breathe.
“What information?”
“Pregnancies.”
I stood so quickly the chair scraped backward.
“Why?”
Rachel looked ashamed.
“Thomas believed Diane had become obsessed with producing a male heir.”
“But there is no male-heir rule.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Rachel looked at Nathan.
Then at me.
“Because Diane didn’t need a boy to satisfy the trust.”
She swallowed.
“She needed a boy to change it.”
Nathan went still.
Rachel continued.
“There’s an old clause in the original corporate charter. It does not transfer ownership to a male heir. But if a direct male descendant is born, the sitting board may vote to restructure the family holding company before that child turns one.”
Nathan cursed under his breath.
I finally understood.
“If I had a son…”
“Diane could pressure the board to restructure.”
“And take control away from Lily.”
“Yes.”
My hand moved over my stomach.
“So my daughter isn’t disappointing her.”
Rachel shook her head.
“She’s threatening her plan.”
A cold rage spread through me.
“What did Thomas know?”
“Almost everything.”
“Almost?”
“He didn’t know how far Diane would go.”
Rachel looked down.
“Neither did I.”
Nathan asked, “Where is the real evidence?”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“In a private bank vault.”
“Where?”
“Downtown.”
“What’s inside?”
“Payment records. Recordings. Copies of forged documents.”
She hesitated.
“And Thomas’s toxicology report.”
The room became completely silent.
I whispered, “He had an autopsy?”
“Privately.”
“What did it show?”
Rachel looked at me.
“His heart attack may not have been natural.”
Before I could respond, glass shattered somewhere behind us.
Nathan shoved me to the floor.
Rachel screamed.
Dad came running from the hallway.
A second later, smoke began pouring through the back of the house.
Someone had thrown something through the kitchen window.
Fire spread across the curtains.
May you like
I screamed one word.
“Lily!”
