Chapter 4 - THE ROOM BEHIND THE LIBRARY
Police searched Sterling Manor until after midnight.
They found no sign of Graham Vale.
They also could not find Rosa.
Claire remained in the hospital.
Lucas refused to leave.
At two in the morning, Claire finally asked the question that had been sitting between them.
“What is that document.”
Lucas looked exhausted.
“My father created it.”
“Your father has been dead for eleven months.”
“I know.”
“So why was it in your desk.”
Lucas stared at the floor.
“Because Graham gave it to me last week.”
Claire felt anger rising.
“And you said nothing.”
“I didn’t understand it.”
“You’re the CEO of a nine-billion-dollar company.”
“Don’t insult me.”
“Then stop treating me like an idiot.”
Lucas stood.
“It wasn’t about terminating you.”
Claire laughed without humor.
“That title suggests otherwise.”
“In trust law, termination can mean ending an agreement.”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
“The document described conditions under which the family trust could be dissolved before our daughter was born.”
Claire stared at him.
“Why would anyone want that.”
Lucas hesitated.
That hesitation told her the answer mattered.
“Because the moment our daughter is born, twenty-eight percent of Sterling Global transfers into an irrevocable trust.”
Claire’s heartbeat quickened.
“Controlled by whom.”
“You.”
Claire went silent.
Lucas continued.
“Until she turns twenty-five.”
Claire finally understood why Helena had watched her phone instead of the baby.
“Who controls those shares now.”
“My mother.”
The room seemed smaller.
“If the trust disappears before the baby is born.”
Lucas nodded.
“Helena keeps control.”
Claire looked away.
She wanted desperately to believe that explained everything.
But it did not explain Graham.
It did not explain Evelyn.
And it certainly did not explain Rosa’s warning.
Her phone rang.
Mason.
Claire answered.
“We found something.”
“What.”
“A concealed door behind the library shelves.”
Lucas lifted his head.
Mason continued.
“There’s a room inside.”
“What kind of room.”
“A surveillance room.”
Claire felt her stomach tighten.
“Surveillance of what.”
“The house.”
“The offices.”
“The garage.”
“Some footage goes back years.”
Claire gripped the phone.
“Who had access.”
“We’re determining that.”
Then Mason became quiet.
“There’s something else.”
“What.”
“One of the screens was recording your bedroom.”
Lucas’s face drained of color.
Claire stopped breathing.
Mason continued.
“And somebody was sitting in that room less than ten minutes before you fell.”
“How do you know.”
“We found a wineglass.”
Claire almost laughed.
“There were two hundred wineglasses downstairs.”
“This one has lipstick on it.”
“What color.”
Mason hesitated.
“Emerald green doesn’t exist as lipstick.”
“But dark burgundy does.”
Claire remembered Helena’s lips that evening.
Burgundy.
Then Mason added one final detail.
“There was also a photograph on the desk.”
May you like
“Of you sleeping.”
“Taken three nights ago.”
