Chapter 5 - The Name Beneath the Name
For several seconds, Ryan did not move.
He simply stared at the letter.
Thomas looked toward the floor.
Claire realized that was the answer before anyone spoke.
Ryan’s voice shook.
“This is fake.”
Marcus leaned against the table.
“It isn’t.”
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
Ryan looked at his father.
“Tell me he’s lying.”
Thomas’s silence broke something.
Ryan stepped backward.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
Thomas took a breath.
“Since you were born.”
Ryan laughed once.
It sounded almost painful.
“So everybody knew except me?”
“No.”
“Mom knew.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“Apparently this man knew.”
Ryan pointed at Marcus.
Marcus did not react.
“How many people?”
“Very few.”
Ryan crumpled the letter.
Walter finally spoke.
“This matters because Katherine may have been protecting Ryan.”
Claire looked at him.
“From who?”
Walter glanced at Marcus.
Marcus answered.
“Ryan’s biological father.”
Ryan threw the letter on the table.
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
“I don’t.”
Marcus’s voice hardened.
“His name was Daniel Cross.”
Walter turned toward him sharply.
Thomas closed his eyes.
Claire felt the story rearranging itself around them.
Daniel Cross.
Walter’s old partner.
The man who disappeared before Laura died.
The man who had apparently contacted Marcus six days ago.
And now Ryan’s biological father.
Ryan sat down slowly.
“No.”
Thomas looked at him.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“When?”
“When I could prove Daniel was gone.”
“You let me believe you were my father for thirty years.”
“I am your father.”
Ryan laughed bitterly.
“That’s convenient.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“I raised you.”
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
Thomas did not defend himself.
That seemed to confuse Ryan more than an argument would have.
Claire looked at Marcus.
“What does this have to do with my mother’s ledger?”
“Daniel used Katherine.”
“For what?”
“At first, information.”
Thomas clenched his jaw.
Marcus continued.
“Later, money.”
Ryan looked up.
“You’re saying my mother helped him steal?”
“No.”
Marcus shook his head.
“I’m saying she realized too late that he was stealing through her access.”
Thomas added, “She came to me.”
“When?”
“After you were born.”
Ryan stared.
“She told me everything.”
“And you stayed married to her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Thomas looked hurt by the question.
“Because I loved her.”
The simple answer silenced Ryan.
Claire understood something then.
People could be guilty of terrible decisions without being guilty of every accusation made against them.
Thomas had lied.
Walter had lied.
Ryan had hurt her.
Marcus had hidden things.
Yet all of them seemed to be standing inside a story that had begun long before Claire understood it.
She opened Laura’s folder again.
“If Daniel is alive, why hide for twelve years?”
Walter answered.
“Because someone wanted him dead.”
“Who?”
“That is the question.”
Evelyn’s phone rang.
She stepped away.
Everyone watched her.
Her face became serious.
“What happened?” Walter asked.
Evelyn ended the call.
“One of the review teams found a dormant account.”
Thomas straightened.
“Where?”
“Cayman structure.”
Marcus looked interested.
“How much?”
“Current balance is eleven million.”
Ryan stared.
“That’s it?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“It received more than three hundred million over nineteen years.”
Nobody spoke.
Claire asked, “Who owns it?”
Evelyn paused.
“That’s the problem.”
Walter understood.
“It’s a trust.”
“Yes.”
“Beneficiary?”
Evelyn looked toward Ryan.
“Ryan Mercer.”
Ryan stood so fast the chair nearly tipped.
“No.”
Thomas looked stunned.
“I never created that.”
Marcus walked toward Ryan.
“Did your mother?”
“No.”
Ryan’s face reddened.
“I didn’t even know about it.”
Claire believed him.
Not because she trusted him.
Because fear this real was difficult to fake.
Walter looked at Evelyn.
“Who established the trust?”
“Daniel Cross.”
Ryan backed away.
Marcus’s voice was quiet.
“That’s why someone thinks you have the ledger.”
Ryan looked at Claire.
For the first time that day, his eyes contained no arrogance.
Only fear.
“What happens now?”
Walter answered.
“We find Daniel.”
Ryan shook his head.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Walter nodded toward the window.
“You might reconsider.”
Ryan followed his gaze.
A black sedan had stopped across the street.
It was not one of Evelyn’s vehicles.
The driver remained inside.
Walter said, “That car has circled this property three times.”
Ryan swallowed.
Thomas stepped toward his son.
“You’re coming with us.”
Ryan looked at him.
“Us?”
Walter picked up Laura’s file.
“No one goes alone from this point forward.”
Claire stared at her grandfather.
“I’m coming too.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Claire.”
“My mother died because everyone around her decided they knew what was best for her.”
Walter flinched.
Claire continued.
“I’m not repeating that story.”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“She definitely sounds like Laura.”
Walter sighed.
Then he nodded.
“Fine.”
Evelyn gathered the documents.
Thomas took Ryan aside.
Claire did not hear their first few words.
Then Ryan suddenly looked toward her.
There was something different in his expression.
Shame.
He walked over.
“What I did today…”
Claire’s face hardened.
“Don’t.”
“I was angry.”
“That doesn’t excuse it.”
“I know.”
She studied him.
It might have been the first honest sentence he had spoken to her in months.
“You don’t get forgiveness because something bad happened to you.”
Ryan looked down.
“I know that too.”
Walter called from the entrance.
“We’re leaving.”
Claire walked past Ryan.
Outside, the strange black sedan was gone.
Evelyn noticed immediately.
“That’s not good.”
Walter scanned the street.
“Where’s our fourth vehicle?”
Evelyn checked her phone.
Her expression changed.
“It never arrived.”
Walter turned.
“You said it entered the driveway.”
“I thought it was ours.”
Claire remembered the headlights she had seen earlier.
The fourth vehicle.
The one that arrived just before the power failed.
Walter went completely still.
“Everyone back inside.”
Too late.
A phone began ringing.
Not Claire’s.
Not Walter’s.
Not Thomas’s.
The sound came from inside the third folder.
Claire opened it.
There was an old prepaid phone hidden beneath her mother’s documents.
Nobody had seen it before.
The screen displayed one word.
CLAIRE.
She answered.
A man’s voice spoke.
“Your mother told me you’d eventually find the file.”
Claire could barely breathe.
“Daniel Cross?”
The man laughed softly.
“No.”
May you like
Then he said something that made Walter turn white.
“I’m the man who killed him.”
