Chapter 4 - Rebecca's Secret
Detective Hale returned the next morning.
Eleanor had been released pending formal charges because investigators were still reviewing witness statements and security footage.
Ethan was furious.
Hale warned them that money and influence could complicate the case.
Eleanor had both.
Claire gave him Richard’s photograph and letter.
Hale read them carefully.
“What exactly are you looking for?”
Claire answered.
“Why my mother ran from Charles Vale.”
The detective’s expression changed.
“You know that name?”
Ethan noticed.
“You do.”
Hale hesitated.
“Charles Vale died twelve years ago.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Hale closed the folder.
“Vale Industries was investigated several times for bribery, labor violations, and financial fraud.”
“Nothing stuck.”
“Witnesses changed statements.”
“Documents disappeared.”
“One accountant vanished.”
Claire felt something tighten in her chest.
“What was the accountant’s name?”
Hale studied her.
“Rebecca Morgan.”
The room went silent.
Claire stood too quickly.
“My mother?”
“She disappeared from Boston twenty-eight years ago.”
“There was never enough evidence to prove a crime occurred.”
Claire turned away.
Her entire childhood had been built on a lie.
Rebecca had always told Claire she had moved because she wanted a quieter life.
She had never mentioned Charles Vale.
Hale continued.
“There’s something else.”
“Vale’s accountant was believed to have copied company records before disappearing.”
“Those records were never recovered.”
Ethan looked toward the study.
“My father helped her escape.”
“That would make sense.”
Hale leaned forward.
“If Rebecca had those files, Charles Vale would have spent the rest of his life looking for them.”
Claire suddenly remembered something.
Her mother’s house.
The old blue music box Rebecca had forbidden anyone to throw away.
After the funeral, Claire had packed it into storage.
Inside the music box was a false wooden bottom.
Claire had discovered it as a teenager.
It had always been empty.
Or so she thought.
She stood.
“I need to go to my mother’s storage unit.”
Ethan went with her.
Two hours later, they unlocked the unit.
Boxes filled the room.
Claire found the blue music box beneath Rebecca’s winter coats.
She removed the bottom panel.
This time she noticed a tiny keyhole.
The brass key from Richard’s study fit perfectly.
The panel opened a second time.
Inside was a cassette tape.
A ledger.
And a photograph of Eleanor holding a baby.
Claire picked up the photograph.
On the back was written a date.
Her birthday.
Beneath it was another sentence.
ELEANOR KNOWS WHO CLAIRE'S FATHER IS.
Claire’s hands began shaking.
Then Ethan noticed the storage unit door moving.
Someone was standing outside.
Watching them.
The figure turned and ran.
Ethan chased him.
Claire heard tires scream against pavement.
By the time Ethan returned, the stranger was gone.
But he had dropped something.
A silver cuff link.
Ethan recognized it immediately.
May you like
It belonged to his younger brother.
Nathan.
