Chapter 15 - THE LOWEST POINT
The police separated everyone.
Bedrooms became interview rooms.
Phones were confiscated.
Accounts were frozen.
Claire should have felt safer.
Instead, she felt trapped.
At eight the next morning, two state investigators arrived.
They were not there for Helena.
They were there for Claire.
“Claire Sterling.”
“Yes.”
“You are being investigated for securities fraud.”
Lucas stepped between them.
“Absolutely not.”
The investigator produced a warrant.
Millions of dollars had been moved into an account opened under Claire’s name.
Her electronic signature appeared on transfer approvals.
The destination account belonged to a company she supposedly controlled.
Claire laughed in disbelief.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
The investigator remained unmoved.
“We also recovered correspondence between you and Nathan Cole.”
“I barely speak to Nathan outside family events.”
“According to these messages, you planned to use your daughter’s trust to remove Lucas Sterling as CEO.”
Lucas grabbed the papers.
The messages looked real.
Claire’s name.
Nathan’s number.
Months of conversations.
All fabricated.
Helena watched from the doorway.
Claire looked at her.
“You did this.”
Helena said nothing.
Mason examined the warrant.
“Claire is eight months pregnant.”
“She is not being jailed today.”
“But she must surrender her passport.”
Claire suddenly felt exhausted.
The fall.
The lies.
The erased daughter.
The fake DNA report.
Now fraud charges.
She sat down.
For the first time, fear won.
“What if I can’t prove any of this.”
Lucas knelt in front of her.
“We will.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“You said that about your family.”
He flinched.
Claire’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know who to trust anymore.”
Lucas quietly removed his wedding ring.
For one horrible second, Claire thought he was leaving.
Instead, he placed it in her palm.
“Then don’t trust my name.”
“Don’t trust my company.”
“Don’t trust my family.”
He closed her fingers around the ring.
“Trust the man who is sitting here.”
Claire looked at him.
Before she could answer, Rosa ran into the room.
“Mrs. Sterling.”
She was holding something wrapped in cloth.
“I remembered.”
“Remembered what.”
“The numbers on Mr. Henry’s photograph.”
28.
29.
30.
“They weren’t only percentages.”
Rosa unfolded the cloth.
Inside was an old brass measuring tape.
“Mr. Henry used to measure everything when he renovated the manor.”
Claire frowned.
Rosa pointed toward the library.
“Twenty-eight feet.”
“Thirty-one feet.”
“Forty-one feet.”
Lucas understood first.
“They’re directions.”
They followed the measurements from Henry’s desk.
Twenty-eight feet east.
Thirty-one feet north.
Forty-one inches from the floor.
Lucas pressed the wall.
A hidden panel opened.
Inside was a narrow steel box.
Claire almost cried with relief.
“The original trust.”
Lucas opened it.
There was no trust.
Only a handwritten note from Henry.
One sentence.
May you like
IF CLAIRE FINDS THIS, THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE TRUST IS SOMEONE SHE LOVES.
Claire slowly turned toward Lucas.
