Chapter 3 - THE RECORDING
The emergency room lights were painfully bright.
Lucas stood beside Claire’s bed while doctors monitored the baby.
Neither of them spoke.
Finally, the physician turned from the monitor.
“Your daughter’s heartbeat is strong.”
Claire exhaled.
Lucas covered his face with both hands.
The doctor continued.
“You’re badly bruised, but we’re not seeing signs of immediate labor.”
Claire nodded.
“Can she stay inside.”
“That’s what we want.”
After the doctor left, Lucas reached for Claire.
She moved her hand away.
His expression hardened.
“You think I had something to do with this.”
“I found a document in your office.”
“What document.”
“The Maternal Termination Contingency Plan.”
Lucas went completely still.
Then he looked toward the hospital door.
“Where is it.”
“At the mansion.”
“Claire, listen to me.”
“No.”
“You need to listen.”
The door opened before he could continue.
Mason entered carrying a tablet.
“We recovered your recording.”
Lucas stepped back.
Mason pressed play.
At first came party music.
Then Evelyn’s voice.
“You had no right to open those financial records.”
Claire’s recorded voice answered.
“They have my signature on them.”
“They’re family documents.”
“My signature makes them my documents.”
A door slammed.
Then Helena spoke.
Cool.
Controlled.
“You are carrying a Sterling child.”
“You have benefited enormously from that privilege.”
Claire’s recorded voice sharpened.
“My baby isn’t corporate property.”
Then came several seconds of movement.
Footsteps.
Heavy breathing.
Evelyn shouted.
“You ruined my life.”
Claire answered.
“I exposed what you did.”
A scuffle followed.
Then a voice whispered something in the background.
Three words.
“Do it now.”
The fall came immediately afterward.
Lucas stared at Mason.
“Play that again.”
Mason did.
“Do it now.”
Evelyn’s voice was easy to identify throughout the recording.
Helena’s was too.
But this voice was different.
A man.
Lucas turned pale.
Claire saw it.
“You recognize him.”
Lucas did not answer.
Mason paused the recording.
“Mr. Sterling.”
Lucas walked toward the window.
“His name is Graham Vale.”
Claire knew the name.
Every person in Boston finance knew it.
Graham Vale had been the Sterling family attorney for twenty-seven years.
He had written Lucas’s grandfather’s will.
He had negotiated Claire and Lucas’s prenuptial agreement.
And he had personally handled the trust created for their unborn child.
Mason folded his arms.
“Where is Mr. Vale now.”
Lucas turned around.
“He was at the gala.”
Claire remembered the tables.
The champagne.
The speeches.
The man in the dark blue suit who had watched her climb the staircase fifteen minutes before the fall.
Graham had been standing beside Helena.
Mason called an officer.
“Find him.”
The officer returned less than a minute later.
His face said everything.
“Detective.”
“Vale’s gone.”
Mason frowned.
“When did he leave.”
“He didn’t.”
Claire felt cold.
The officer continued.
“His car is still outside.”
May you like
“His coat is still in the cloakroom.”
“But nobody can find him anywhere in the mansion.”
