Chapter 17 - The Woman They Buried Alive
Claire had suffered severe brain trauma after the crash.
For nearly two years, she could not speak clearly.
Mercer arranged private medical care under the name Catherine Wells.
According to the records, she had no known relatives.
By the time her memory improved, she had already been declared legally dead.
Claire tried to leave twice.
Both times, Mercer had her transferred.
She eventually stopped trying.
“I thought Sofia died.”
Her voice was weak.
Sofia sat beside her bed holding her hand.
“They told me my baby died in the hospital.”
Margaret began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire looked at her.
“You saved her?”
Margaret nodded.
“I thought Nathan would find her.”
“He almost did.”
Claire looked toward Emily.
“You married him.”
Emily nodded.
Claire’s eyes fell to her pregnant stomach.
Fear crossed her scarred face.
“He tried again.”
Emily did not need to ask what she meant.
“Yes.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Same pattern.”
Sofia frowned.
“What pattern?”
Claire looked at her daughter.
“Nathan never wanted children.”
“But the family trusts were written around blood heirs.”
“If a wife died while carrying his legal heir, temporary control transferred to him as surviving spouse and trustee.”
Emily’s stomach turned.
The chandelier had not only been murder.
It had been financial strategy.
Her death and her daughter’s death would have shifted control of the remaining protected Harrington assets to Nathan.
Mercer would then manipulate Nathan into transferring them.
Sofia stared at Emily.
“He needed both of you dead.”
Claire nodded.
“But there’s something Nathan doesn’t know.”
Everyone became still.
“What?”
Claire looked at Margaret.
“Charles changed the trust.”
Margaret stared at her.
“When?”
“After the crash.”
“If another Harrington spouse died under suspicious circumstances, control bypassed the surviving husband.”
Claire looked directly at Sofia.
“It went to the oldest living granddaughter.”
Sofia stopped breathing.
Emily whispered.
“You.”
Claire nodded.
“That is why Mercer kept me alive.”
Sofia frowned.
“Why not kill you?”
“Because my death would trigger another clause.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“Charles designed the new trust so no transfer could happen without verification from me or my direct descendant.”
Emily suddenly understood Mercer’s desperation.
He needed Claire alive but invisible.
He needed Sofia controlled.
And he needed Nathan to believe he could still inherit everything.
Sofia asked the question everyone was thinking.
“Where is Thomas?”
Claire’s eyes filled with fear.
“He came here last night.”
“What did he want?”
“The location of Charles’s final trust document.”
“Did you tell him?”
Claire nodded slowly.
Emily leaned forward.
“Where is it?”
Claire looked toward the window.
“Inside the Harrington estate.”
Margaret whispered.
“Where?”
Claire answered.
May you like
“Under the ballroom floor.”
Exactly beneath the place where the chandelier had fallen.
