Chapter 9 - Charlotte Voss
There was no record of a Charlotte Voss after age twenty-three.
There were records for Chloe Bennett beginning at twenty-four.
New state.
New driver’s license.
New job history.
New life.
She had eventually become Chloe Whitmore.
My wife.
Detective Bennett found the bridge between the identities.
Caleb Voss had a daughter named Charlotte.
Charlotte’s mother died when she was seventeen.
At twenty-two, Charlotte worked briefly for one of Caleb’s consulting companies.
Then both vanished from public records after my father threatened legal action against him.
Five years later, Chloe Bennett appeared.
Six months after that, she met me.
I remembered that first meeting perfectly.
A charity auction.
She spilled sparkling water near my table and laughed about ruining a designer dress.
I thought it was coincidence.
Now I wondered if anything in our marriage had been accidental.
Mom watched me absorb it.
“Ethan.”
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
“I defended her to you.”
I stood beside the hospital window.
“You warned me over and over.”
“You loved her.”
“I loved somebody who didn’t exist.”
Maya remained quiet.
She understood that there was nothing useful to say.
Nathan entered carrying another report.
“We traced the smaller transfers.”
“Northstar?”
“Yes.”
“Caleb?”
“No.”
He placed a corporate registration document in front of me.
Northstar Strategic Holdings was controlled by an offshore trust.
The beneficiary was Charlotte Voss.
Chloe had been preparing an escape fund.
But there was another surprise.
Caleb wasn’t listed anywhere.
“That means she planned to cut him out.”
Nathan nodded.
“Looks that way.”
The investigation into Caleb’s attack suddenly made more sense.
By evening, Caleb regained consciousness.
Detective Bennett interviewed him at the hospital.
He asked for an attorney.
Then he asked for protection.
Within thirty minutes, he offered a deal.
He claimed Chloe had attacked him.
He claimed the entire plan had become her operation.
He claimed he only helped because she threatened him.
I laughed when Bennett repeated that.
“So now everyone is a victim?”
“Pretty much.”
“What does he know?”
“A lot.”
Caleb admitted that Chloe targeted me intentionally.
She had spent nearly a year researching our family before meeting me.
The marriage had always been part of the plan.
But the trust wasn’t originally the final target.
There was something else.
Something my father had hidden.
Something Caleb believed was worth far more than the assets Chloe was trying to steal.
Before Bennett could explain, my mother suddenly whispered.
“The patents.”
I turned around.
“What patents?”
She looked terrified.
“Your father’s private research.”
Nathan frowned.
“Whitmore Medical’s unreleased technology?”
Mom shook her head.
“Not the company’s.”
She looked at me.
May you like
“Yours.”
*
