Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Video.
Claire locked Lucas's phone before Henry could read the message.
Her father noticed.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
Henry studied her face.
Claire understood suddenly how difficult it was to lie to someone who had watched you learn how.
"Give me the phone," Henry said.
"It's Lucas's."
"Exactly."
"Then you have even less reason to touch it."
Henry's expression hardened.
"Claire, we need to stop improvising and handle this through counsel."
"You mean through your counsel."
"Our counsel."
"That's not the same thing anymore."
She slipped the phone into her pocket and walked out.
For the first time since the reception, Claire did not know whether she was fleeing Lucas or her father.
She took the service elevator to the parking level and called the contact marked A from Lucas's phone.
The call connected on the second ring.
No one spoke.
Claire listened to faint street noise.
"Who is this?"
Silence.
"You texted Lucas."
A woman's voice answered.
"Where is he?"
Claire's grip tightened.
The voice was familiar.
Painfully familiar.
"Ava?"
The line went dead.
Claire stood motionless between two concrete columns.
Ava Donovan was her younger half-sister.
She was also the one person Claire had spent the last year trying not to discuss.
Ava was twenty-six, brilliant, impulsive, and permanently angry at Henry.
She had moved to Brooklyn after a vicious argument with him and had barely spoken to Claire since Christmas.
The official reason was money.
The real reason, Claire suspected, was always deeper.
Claire called again.
Ava rejected the call.
Claire sent one message.
If you were the woman in the hotel photo, I deserve to know.
Three dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
A minute later, Ava sent an address.
NOON.
COME ALONE.
The address belonged to a small coffee shop near Union Square.
Claire arrived ten minutes early and sat in the back corner.
At exactly noon, Ava walked in wearing a black coat and no makeup.
She looked tired, furious, and scared.
Claire stood.
Ava did not hug her.
"You really did it," Ava said.
"Did what?"
"You blew up the wedding."
Claire stared at her.
"You knew I would?"
Ava looked away.
"Sit down."
Claire remained standing.
"Were you with Lucas at the Harbor Crown Hotel?"
Ava closed her eyes.
"Yes."
The admission hurt even though Claire had already guessed it.
"Were you sleeping with him?"
Ava's eyes snapped open.
"No."
"Then why were you meeting my fiance in a hotel at midnight?"
"Because every other place we met had cameras your father could access."
Claire's anger stumbled.
"What?"
Ava pulled out her phone and slid it across the table.
On the screen was a photograph of a printed email.
FROM: HENRY DONOVAN.
TO: AVA DONOVAN.
The message was dated four months earlier.
Claire read the final line twice.
If Claire discovers the shortfall before the trustee transition, all three of us lose everything.
"What shortfall?" Claire whispered.
Ava laughed bitterly.
"He still hasn't told you."
Claire sat down.
"Lucas showed me a spreadsheet."
"Eight million?"
"Eight point one four."
Ava nodded.
"That was the number six weeks ago."
"How do you know?"
"Because I found the first missing payment."
Claire stared at her sister.
Ava worked as a freelance financial analyst.
She had once handled acquisition modeling for Donovan Group before Henry pushed her out after their argument.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Ava looked almost insulted.
"I tried."
"When?"
"Christmas Eve."
Claire remembered the dinner.
Ava had arrived late and already angry.
She and Henry had argued in the library.
Claire had begged them both to stop because Lucas's parents were visiting.
Ava had left before dessert.
"You told me Dad was lying about the company," Claire said.
"You called me dramatic."
The memory landed with humiliating clarity.
Claire lowered her eyes.
"I thought you were angry about the partnership money."
"That's what he wanted you to think."
Ava leaned forward.
"I found transfers going to vendor accounts that didn't match actual invoices."
"Whose accounts?"
"I didn't know at first."
"And now?"
Ava hesitated.
"Some connect to a holding network controlled by your father."
Claire shook her head.
"No."
"I knew you'd say that."
"He built the company."
"Mom built half of it."
The word Mom hung between them.
Claire and Ava shared the same mother, despite being born years apart.
Their mother's death had turned them into different kinds of grieving daughters.
Claire became obedient.
Ava became suspicious.
"Where does Lucas fit?" Claire asked.
Ava looked toward the window.
"He found me in January."
"Why?"
"Because he found the same transfers."
"And instead of telling me, he met you in secret."
"He wanted proof first."
"He forged my signature."
Ava's face tightened.
"He told you that?"
"Yes."
"Then it's worse than I thought."
Claire almost laughed.
"That doesn't sound like a defense."
"I'm not defending him."
Ava pushed the phone back toward herself.
"Lucas has this disease where he thinks being the smartest person in the room gives him permission to make decisions for everybody else."
Claire thought of the forged signature.
The description felt painfully accurate.
"Did you send the envelope?" Claire asked.
Ava froze.
"No."
"Did Lucas?"
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because he called me last night after you played the recording."
Claire's pulse quickened.
"What did he say?"
Ava looked at her carefully.
"He said somebody had cut the audio."
"Cut it how?"
"He said the first sentence and the second sentence came from different parts of the conversation."
Claire shook her head.
"Convenient."
"Maybe."
Ava reached into her coat and removed a small memory card.
"But I recorded that meeting too."
Claire stared at it.
"You recorded Lucas?"
"I record anyone who talks to me about Dad now."
Ava slid the card across the table.
"The full conversation is on there."
Claire's fingers hovered above it.
"Why didn't you send this to me yesterday?"
Ava's face darkened.
"Because I didn't know you had the edited version until you played it in front of half the city."
Claire picked up the card.
"And the money?"
"Lucas moved it."
"Into Northstar."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Ava looked toward the door as if expecting someone.
"Because Northstar wasn't built to steal Donovan House."
She lowered her voice.
"It was built to stop your father from selling it."
Claire felt the floor tilt beneath her.
"Selling it to who?"
Ava reached for her bag.
"That's the part Lucas wouldn't tell me."
"Why not?"
"Because he thought the buyer had someone inside the family."
Claire stood.
"Ava, who sent the envelope?"
Ava's eyes met hers.
"I don't know."
Then she added the sentence Claire had not expected.
"But I know who had the only copy of that hotel photograph."
Claire waited.
Ava swallowed.
May you like
"Dad."
The Announcement Before the First Dance
