Chapter 14 - THE BETRAYAL INSIDE THE HOUSE
Ethan brought Noah to New York quietly.
Only six people knew.
Ethan.
Rosa.
Samuel.
Daniel.
Noah.
And Ethan’s longtime executive assistant, Claire Bennett.
By midnight, Victoria knew.
Daniel discovered the leak almost accidentally.
A security camera showed Claire leaving the mansion.
Nothing unusual.
Then another camera captured her entering a hotel.
Twenty minutes later, Hugh Haynes arrived.
Daniel showed Ethan the footage.
Ethan said nothing for a long time.
Claire had worked beside him for eleven years.
She had organized his mother’s funeral.
She had handled his schedule during the period Rosa tried to contact him.
The realization was brutal.
Ethan called Claire into his office the next morning.
She smiled normally.
“You wanted to see me?”
“Sit down.”
She did.
Ethan placed the hotel image on the desk.
Her smile disappeared.
“How long?”
Claire looked at the photograph.
“Ethan…”
“How long?”
“Twelve years.”
Rosa, standing near the window, went still.
Claire looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Rosa almost laughed.
“You’re sorry?”
“I was twenty-four when Hugh hired me.”
“To do what?”
“Watch Ethan.”
Ethan’s voice became colder.
“Did you block Rosa’s calls?”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Silence.
“Did you tell her I refused to see her?”
“Yes.”
Rosa stepped backward as if struck.
Four years of pain collapsed into one word.
Yes.
Ethan stood.
“Why?”
Claire began crying.
“Hugh paid for my father’s treatment.”
“That explains the beginning.”
“Not twelve years.”
Claire looked ashamed.
“After a while, there was no way out.”
“There is always a way out.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
Then she reached into her bag.
Daniel immediately stepped forward.
Claire froze.
“It’s not a weapon.”
She removed a flash drive.
“I copied everything.”
Ethan stared.
“Why?”
“Because Victoria changed the plan.”
Rosa’s stomach tightened.
“What plan?”
Claire looked toward Lily’s photograph on Ethan’s desk.
“The original plan was to keep Rosa away until Ethan married Victoria.”
“And afterward?”
“The Haynes family believed the marriage would lock control of the trust.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“You said Victoria changed the plan.”
Claire’s hands trembled.
“When the attorneys warned her that Lily could still claim inheritance rights…”
She swallowed.
“Victoria said inheritance rights disappear if there is no child to inherit.”
Rosa’s face went white.
Ethan stopped moving.
Claire continued quickly.
“Hugh told her no.”
“Edward told her absolutely not.”
“But Victoria started making calls anyway.”
Rosa reached for the desk.
“What kind of calls?”
Claire looked directly at her.
May you like
“The kind that make me think Lily falling beside that piano may not have been the first time Victoria tried to hurt her.”
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