Chapter 5 - The Secret Daniel’s Father Took to His Grave
Thomas Carter had supposedly died seventeen years earlier.
That made the text impossible.
Unless the number had been transferred.
Daniel ordered his security team to trace it.
While they waited, Emma sat with Leah in the bookstore office.
There were too many truths arriving at once.
Her mother had saved Daniel.
Claire had known Lily survived.
She had protected Leah for years.
And she had hidden evidence inside a dress Emma nearly refused to wear.
“Why didn’t she tell me?” Emma whispered.
Leah’s expression softened.
“Because she wanted you to have a normal life.”
Emma laughed bitterly.
“Normal?”
Hospital bills.
Collection notices.
Working doubles.
Raising Noah.
Nothing had felt normal.
But perhaps that was the point.
Claire had chosen ordinary hardship over extraordinary danger.
Daniel entered.
“We traced the number.”
Emma stood.
“And?”
“It belongs to a prepaid forwarding service.”
“Who pays for it?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Carter Rowe Development.”
Silence.
Emma stared at him.
“You?”
“No.”
Daniel opened his laptop.
The account had been created years earlier.
Authorized by one executive.
Ruth Rowe.
Daniel called an emergency board meeting.
Ruth arrived at Carter Rowe headquarters at four that afternoon.
She was seventy-two, silver-haired, elegant, and walked with a cane she seemed to resent needing.
When she saw Emma, her expression changed.
“You look like Claire.”
Emma did not respond.
Daniel placed the photographs on the conference table.
“Tell me the truth.”
Ruth sat.
For a long moment she said nothing.
Then she looked toward the windows.
“Your father was desperate.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
Ruth continued.
“The Rowe Street building was failing financially. Repairs cost more than the property was worth. Thomas increased the insurance.”
“You’re saying he started the fire?”
“No.”
Daniel stared.
“Then who did?”
Ruth looked at him.
“I did.”
Nobody spoke.
Ruth’s hands trembled.
“I didn’t intend to burn the building.”
She explained.
Thomas planned insurance fraud.
He intended to damage an empty storage section in the basement after everyone had been warned to leave because of a supposed gas inspection.
But Thomas changed the schedule.
He wanted the insurance payment immediately.
Ruth tried to stop him.
They argued.
During the confrontation, a container of accelerant spilled.
A heater ignited the fumes.
The fire spread within seconds.
“Your father ran,” Ruth whispered.
Daniel’s eyes filled with rage.
“You left children upstairs.”
“I went back.”
“You told my mother Lily died.”
Ruth began crying.
“Because your father threatened everyone.”
Emma leaned forward.
“What about my mother?”
“Claire saw Thomas leaving the basement.”
The pieces connected.
Claire had known.
Thomas Carter had threatened her.
Ruth had hidden Lily because Lily had also seen something.
“Why didn’t you go to the police?” Daniel asked.
“I was afraid.”
Daniel laughed once without humor.
“My mother buried an empty coffin because you were afraid.”
Ruth lowered her head.
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
Daniel stood.
For a moment Emma thought he would leave.
Instead, Ruth reached into her bag.
“There is something else.”
She placed an envelope on the table.
“Thomas didn’t die when you were nineteen.”
Daniel froze.
Emma felt the room change.
“What?”
Ruth looked directly at him.
“He disappeared.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I identified his body.”
“You identified his watch and personal effects after a car fire. DNA testing wasn’t performed.”
Daniel stared at her.
Ruth continued.
“I helped him disappear.”
Daniel stepped backward.
“Why?”
“He threatened Lily.”
Leah whispered, “Me?”
Ruth nodded.
“I convinced Thomas I would keep quiet if he left the country.”
Emma suddenly understood the text message.
“He’s alive.”
Ruth’s silence answered.
Daniel’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“Where is my father?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I haven’t seen him in fifteen years.”
Emma pushed the anonymous message toward Ruth.
“He knows about the dress.”
Ruth read it.
Her face changed.
“That isn’t Thomas.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Thomas didn’t know about the dress.”
Emma frowned.
“Then who did?”
Ruth looked at her.
“Only three people.”
“Who?”
“Claire.”
She pointed toward herself.
“And your mother’s attorney.”
Emma stared.
“My mother had an attorney?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Ruth hesitated.
“Victoria Ashford’s father.”
Daniel and Emma exchanged a look.
The humiliation at the gala suddenly felt different.
Not random.
Not accidental.
Daniel pulled out his phone.
But before he could call anyone, the conference-room door opened.
Victoria stood there.
Her face was pale.
In her hand was a sealed envelope.
“My father died this morning,” she said.
Nobody spoke.
Victoria looked directly at Emma.
May you like
“Before he died, he told me to give this to Claire Bennett’s daughter.”
---
