Chapter 4 - ANNA'S VOICE
The police played the tape inside Ethan’s father’s old study.
Claire sat in a leather chair with Ethan beside her.
A detective placed the cassette into an old machine recovered from the hidden room.
Static filled the study.
Then a woman breathed.
Claire’s hands began trembling.
She knew that breath.
She had heard it thousands of nights when she was a child.
Then the voice came.
“Claire, if you are hearing this, something has gone terribly wrong.”
Claire covered her mouth.
“Mom.”
Ethan reached for her hand.
The tape continued.
“My beautiful girl, I am sorry.”
“I wanted to tell you everything when you were old enough.”
“I kept waiting for the right moment.”
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“I was wrong.”
Claire’s eyes filled with tears.
“Jonathan Whitmore was not simply my employer.”
Ethan looked at Claire.
“He was your father.”
The room went completely silent.
Claire’s heart seemed to stop.
“My father?”
The recording continued.
“Jonathan loved you.”
“He wanted to acknowledge you publicly.”
“But Eleanor discovered the truth.”
“She believed your existence would destroy the Whitmore family and everything she had spent years trying to control.”
Claire turned toward Ethan.
Ethan had gone pale.
If Jonathan Whitmore was Claire’s father, then she and Ethan shared the same father.
Ethan seemed to understand at the same moment.
He released Claire’s hand immediately.
Claire stood.
“No.”
The tape crackled.
Then Anna continued.
“There is one thing Eleanor never understood.”
“Jonathan was not Ethan’s biological father.”
Ethan froze.
Claire stared at the tape recorder.
“What?”
Anna’s voice became quieter.
“Ethan was already three years old when Jonathan married his mother.”
“Jonathan raised him as his own.”
“He loved him as his own.”
“But there is no blood relation between Claire and Ethan.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Claire almost laughed from shock.
The detective glanced between them.
Anna’s voice continued.
“Claire, your father created a separate trust for you.”
“If you ever return to the Whitmore estate, find the blue room.”
“Behind the portrait of Jonathan’s grandfather is a safe.”
“The code is your birthday.”
Then there was a long pause.
Claire leaned toward the machine.
Her mother whispered one final sentence.
May you like
“And Claire, if Eleanor tells you I died in that accident, do not believe her.”
The tape clicked off.
