Chapter 7 - Daniel’s First Mistake
Rachel Monroe called Claire at 3:07 p.m.
Her voice came through in a whisper.
“Claire?”
Claire sat upright.
“Rachel?”
Adrian and Mara immediately turned.
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“I didn’t know who else to call.”
Claire activated speakerphone.
“Tell me where you are.”
“I can’t.”
“Are you safe?”
Silence.
Then:
“No.”
Claire’s pulse accelerated.
Adrian signaled Mara, who began tracing the call.
Rachel continued.
“Daniel knows.”
“Knows what?”
“That I copied the files.”
“Why did you take the drive?”
“To stop him destroying it.”
Claire closed her eyes.
She had assumed betrayal.
Rachel had been protecting evidence.
“Listen to me. We can help you.”
“No one can help me.”
“Yes, they can.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand more than you think.”
Rachel began crying.
“I signed things, Claire.”
“What things?”
“Authorizations.”
“Did you know what they were?”
“Not at first.”
“And later?”
A long pause.
“Yes.”
Claire’s heart sank.
Rachel continued.
“Daniel said nobody would get hurt. He said it was just money moving between entities.”
“Where is the drive?”
“I have it.”
“Good.”
“No. It’s not good.”
“Why?”
“Because it has everything.”
Adrian stepped closer.
Claire asked, “Everything what?”
“Payments. Messages. Names.”
Rachel inhaled shakily.
“And recordings.”
“What recordings?”
“Daniel recorded meetings.”
Claire stared at Adrian.
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
Of course.
Daniel trusted nobody.
Not even his accomplices.
Rachel whispered, “He has enough to destroy Calder. Rourke. Maybe people inside Cross Holdings.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Rachel,” Claire said, “tell me where you are.”
“I’m at the old freight yard near Archer Avenue.”
Mara was already moving.
“Teams out.”
Rachel suddenly gasped.
“What?”
“Someone’s here.”
“Rachel?”
A vehicle door slammed through the phone.
Rachel whispered, “I have to go.”
“Don’t hang up.”
“I’m sorry, Claire.”
The line died.
Adrian left without another word.
This time Claire did not argue.
She sat beside Mara and watched the operation unfold through location data.
Twelve minutes.
Fourteen.
Seventeen.
Then Mara received confirmation.
Rachel was alive.
The drive was recovered.
The men who had intercepted her fled before Adrian’s team arrived.
But one vehicle remained.
Registered to a security contractor tied to Rourke.
Daniel had not sent them.
Claire realized it aloud.
“He wasn’t cleaning up Rachel.”
Mara nodded.
“Rourke was.”
“So Daniel may not even know she took the drive.”
“Not yet.”
When Adrian returned an hour later, Rachel was with him.
She looked ten years older.
Claire stood.
Rachel crossed the room and hugged her.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire froze.
Then hugged her back.
“For what?”
“For watching what he did to you.”
Claire pulled away.
“Rachel—”
“I knew he was hiding money.”
“That isn’t the same.”
“I knew he was planning the divorce.”
Claire went still.
Adrian looked away, giving them privacy without leaving.
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“He told us months ago that you were becoming a liability.”
The word cut.
Liability.
Not wife.
Not partner.
Liability.
“What did you say?”
“I told him he was an idiot.”
Claire laughed despite everything.
Rachel wiped her eyes.
“He said you’d never leave voluntarily.”
“He was right.”
“So he made sure you had nowhere to stand.”
The emptied accounts.
The trust-owned condo.
The company car.
The health insurance.
It had all been engineered.
“You signed documents.”
Rachel nodded.
“I thought they were restructuring forms. Later I understood they moved funds.”
“How much?”
“More than seventy-four million.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“How much?”
Rachel looked at him.
“Closer to two hundred.”
Silence.
Claire stared.
“Two hundred million?”
Rachel nodded.
“Over four years.”
Adrian’s expression went blank.
That was worse than anger.
“Where?”
“Some went through Bennett Capital. Some through overseas property funds. Some disappeared.”
“And Rourke?”
“He gets a percentage.”
“Calder?”
“Runs internal approvals.”
“Who else?”
Rachel looked at Adrian with fear.
“I don’t know names.”
“But?”
“There’s someone close to you.”
Adrian did not move.
“How close?”
“Very.”
Rachel handed him the drive.
“Daniel called him ‘the man beside the throne.’”
Mara swore softly.
Adrian stared at the drive.
Claire watched him.
For the first time since meeting him, he looked personally wounded.
Not frightened.
Not surprised.
Betrayed.
He had expected corruption.
He had not expected intimacy.
Claire knew that feeling.
She stepped closer.
“You don’t have to open it alone.”
His eyes met hers.
Something passed between them.
Recognition.
Two people betrayed by those who stood closest.
Mara inserted the drive into an isolated computer.
The encryption took twenty minutes to break.
Inside were folders.
Invoices.
Audio.
Videos.
Contracts.
And one directory labeled:
A.C. SUCCESSION
Adrian’s face changed.
Mara opened it.
Documents appeared showing contingency plans for removing Adrian from Cross Holdings.
Financial pressure.
Board manipulation.
Manufactured criminal exposure.
Asset seizure.
At the bottom was a proposed replacement CEO.
Claire read the name twice.
Thomas Cross.
“Who is Thomas?” she asked.
Adrian did not answer immediately.
Mara did.
“Adrian’s uncle.”
Claire looked at him.
His father’s younger brother.
A man Adrian had mentioned only once.
“He’s inside the company?”
“Vice chairman,” Adrian said.
Rachel whispered, “Daniel met him six times last year.”
Adrian turned toward the window.
Claire recognized the posture.
She had stood exactly like that after the divorce.
Still because moving would reveal too much.
She approached carefully.
“Adrian.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you aren’t.”
His eyes moved toward her.
“I’ve known Thomas since I was born.”
Claire’s voice softened.
“I slept beside Daniel for nine years.”
Silence.
Then Adrian gave a humorless laugh.
“Is this where you tell me we’ll both be fine?”
“No.”
He looked at her.
Claire said, “I hate that sentence.”
For the first time since opening the drive, something in his expression eased.
Then Mara interrupted.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The Thursday transfer.”
She turned the screen.
“It was moved.”
“To when?”
Mara looked at the clock.
“Tonight.”
Daniel Bennett had made his first mistake by underestimating Claire.
Now he was making his second.
He was panicking.
And panicked men moved faster than their plans could protect them.
May you like
The transfer would begin in less than six hours.
---
