Chapter 16 - Twenty-Three Days
Security doubled.
Sophie hated it.
“Why can’t I go to school?”
“Temporary.”
“You said that last week.”
Claire hated lying even in small ways.
“Because Victor may try to contact you.”
Sophie folded her arms.
“He already did.”
Claire froze.
“When?”
“Before.”
“When before?”
Sophie looked guilty.
“Grandma Ruth’s house.”
Claire sat beside her.
“You never told me.”
“He sent letters.”
“How many?”
“A lot.”
“What did they say?”
Sophie opened the bottom drawer of her desk.
Inside were six folded pieces of paper.
Claire’s hands went cold.
The letters began when Sophie was five.
Victor never identified himself.
He signed them V.
He wrote about Lily.
About Ethan.
About the Ashfords.
He told Sophie that someday she would have to choose between the family she was given and the family she deserved.
Claire read one sentence twice.
When you turn eight, no one can keep what belongs to you.
Victor had been preparing Sophie psychologically for years.
Not abducting her suddenly.
Grooming her loyalty.
The word made Claire sick.
She took the letters to Quinn.
“They prove premeditation.”
“Enough to find him?”
“Maybe.”
A postal mark led nowhere.
Another letter contained a pressed blue flower.
An investigator identified it as a variety common near Lake Champlain.
Victor’s Vermont video had also been uploaded near that region.
Police narrowed the search.
Ethan stayed with Sophie while Claire met investigators.
Their relationship grew quietly.
He did not buy more extravagant gifts.
Claire made sure of that.
Instead they cooked.
Badly.
Sophie taught him card games.
He helped with math homework.
One evening Claire found them asleep on opposite ends of the sofa with a documentary still playing.
She stood in the doorway for several minutes.
The sight hurt and healed at the same time.
Ethan opened his eyes.
He saw her.
Neither spoke.
Later, in the kitchen, he said quietly.
“I missed this.”
Claire looked at him.
“You never had this.”
“I know.”
He leaned against the counter.
“That’s what I mean.”
Claire felt the old pull toward him.
It frightened her.
“I don’t know who we are now.”
“Neither do I.”
“I’m not ready.”
“I’m not asking.”
She looked at him.
Ethan smiled faintly.
“For once in my life, I can wait.”
Claire looked down.
Twenty days before Sophie’s birthday, Victor made his first physical move.
An SUV followed Sophie’s security vehicle.
Police intercepted it.
The driver was a private investigator.
He claimed Victor had hired him months earlier.
Seventeen days before the birthday, someone attempted to access Sophie’s trust records.
The login originated in Canada.
Fourteen days before the birthday, Ruth received a package.
Inside was Lily’s childhood necklace.
And a note.
You helped them steal her once.
Do not help them steal Sophie too.
Ruth broke down.
Claire sat with her for two hours.
“I loved Victor.”
Ruth whispered.
“I know.”
“Before all of this.”
“I know.”
“He wasn’t always like this.”
Claire looked at her.
“Maybe.”
“But Sophie cannot be responsible for the man he became.”
Ruth nodded.
“I know.”
Ten days before the birthday, police found Victor’s Vermont property.
Empty.
But recently used.
Inside was another prepared bedroom.
A plane ticket to Iceland.
Two forged passports.
One for Victor.
One for Sophie.
Departure date: Sophie’s birthday.
Claire stopped sleeping.
Seven days remained.
Eleanor’s trial began.
Prosecutors offered a plea agreement.
Twenty-five years.
She accepted.
Ethan did not attend sentencing.
Claire did.
Eleanor stood before the judge.
“I have no excuse.”
The courtroom became quiet.
“I convinced myself that protecting my family justified deciding who was allowed to belong to it.”
“I was wrong.”
“I treated love as ownership.”
“I treated money as safety.”
“I treated people as pieces.”
“And a child lost seven years with her parents because of me.”
Claire looked down.
Eleanor continued.
“I cannot repair that.”
“I can only stop lying about it.”
She received twenty-two years with eligibility for parole in eighteen.
As guards led her away, Eleanor looked at Claire.
“Six days.”
Claire nodded.
They both knew what she meant.
Victor had six days.
On the fifth day, nothing happened.
On the fourth, nothing.
On the third, Claire began to wonder whether Eleanor had been wrong.
On the second, Sophie attended a small birthday rehearsal at home.
Ethan had planned a party with only people she trusted.
Ruth.
Claire.
Two school friends.
No reporters.
No Ashford executives.
No grand ballroom.
Sophie chose chocolate cake.
“I hate vanilla.”
Claire smiled.
“I know.”
The words meant more than Sophie understood.
Claire knew something about her daughter now.
A tiny thing.
But hers to know.
On the night before Sophie’s birthday, electricity went out at 11:42 p.m.
The backup generator failed.
Security radios stopped working.
Claire stood instantly.
“Ethan.”
“I know.”
He grabbed a flashlight.
Sophie appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Mom?”
Claire ran toward her.
Then a window shattered downstairs.
Security shouted.
A smoke alarm activated.
The house filled with noise.
Claire reached Sophie.
“Stay with me.”
Ethan moved beside them.
Someone pounded on the front door.
Police.
Then the lights returned.
Nothing had been taken.
No one had entered.
Quinn arrived twenty minutes later.
“It was a diversion.”
“For what?”
They discovered it at midnight.
Sophie’s trust portal had been accessed during the outage.
Someone uploaded a legal document.
A previously undisclosed codicil to Thomas Ashford’s will.
It stated that if Ethan Ashford was not Thomas’s biological son, Ethan’s descendants were excluded from the founder trust.
Claire stared.
“That means Sophie loses everything.”
Ethan looked almost relieved.
“Good.”
Claire turned.
“What?”
“If she loses the company, Victor loses his reason to want her.”
Quinn did not look relieved.
“The codicil is forged.”
Claire stared.
“Then why upload it?”
Ethan’s face changed.
“He wants us to challenge it.”
Quinn nodded.
“A challenge triggers an automatic verification hearing.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
Sophie’s birthday.
Claire went cold.
“Where?”
“Ashford Holdings headquarters.”
Victor was not trying to steal Sophie from the house.
May you like
He was trying to make sure the entire family brought her exactly where he wanted.
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