Chapter 4 - THE SECRET UNDER PIER NINE
Three days later, Claire left the hospital.
She did not return to Adrian's mansion.
Instead, Rebecca arranged for her to stay at her father's old lake house.
The property stood north of Chicago, surrounded by bare trees and overlooking a stretch of frozen water.
Claire had spent summers there as a child.
She remembered learning to swim from the wooden dock.
She remembered her mother making pancakes on Sunday mornings.
And she remembered her father telling her that every woman needed a place where nobody could tell her who to be.
Now she understood why.
Rebecca arrived the following morning with a private investigator named Daniel Mercer.
He was forty-five, broad-shouldered, quiet, and had spent twelve years investigating financial crimes.
Claire met him in the kitchen.
"You're the investigator?"
He nodded.
"Daniel Mercer."
"Have you worked for Rebecca long?"
"Six years."
"Do you know Adrian Vale?"
"By reputation."
Claire smiled without humor.
"That makes two of us."
Daniel placed photographs on the table.
Pier Nine.
An abandoned warehouse.
A private access road.
A steel door beneath the loading platform.
"Your father maintained a records archive here," he explained.
Claire looked at Rebecca.
"Why?"
"Because he believed someone inside the Vale organization was laundering money through shipping contracts."
Claire's stomach tightened.
"Adrian?"
"We don't know."
Daniel continued.
"Thomas began collecting evidence years before his death. The archive was designed to preserve original documents."
Claire looked at the photographs.
"Can we go?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"You're thirty-three weeks pregnant."
"I'm aware."
"And your doctor advised rest."
Claire folded her arms.
"Then bring the documents here."
Daniel nodded.
"That's the plan."
That afternoon, he and Rebecca visited Pier Nine with an independent forensic team.
Claire waited at the lake house.
Every hour felt unbearable.
At six fifteen, Rebecca called.
"We found it."
Claire stood.
"What?"
"The archive."
"What's inside?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"Claire, there's something you need to see in person."
Claire's heart began pounding.
"What?"
"A video recording."
"Of whom?"
A long silence.
Then Rebecca answered.
"Your father."
The following morning, Claire watched the recording on Rebecca's laptop.
Thomas Bennett appeared on the screen.
He sat behind his office desk.
His hair was grayer than Claire remembered.
His expression was serious.
"Claire," he began.
Her eyes filled immediately.
"If you're watching this, something has happened to me."
Claire covered her mouth.
Her father's voice continued.
"I've discovered that Graham Vale has been using Bennett Harbor's shipping routes to move funds through shell companies."
Claire looked at Rebecca.
Graham.
Not Adrian.
The recording continued.
"I don't know how much Adrian understands. I suspect he's being manipulated, but I cannot excuse the things he has chosen not to question."
Claire closed her eyes.
Then her father said something that made her blood run cold.
"Graham has been working with someone inside our family."
Claire stared at the screen.
"Someone I trusted."
Thomas swallowed.
"Someone who knows every weakness in this company."
He leaned closer.
"Claire, if anything happens to me, do not trust Marissa."
The room went silent.
Claire stared at the screen.
Her father had died four years ago.
May you like
Four years before Marissa began sleeping with Adrian.
And somehow, he had already known.
