Chapter 11 - Paige Chooses a Side
Paige testified first.
Evan’s attorney tried to portray her as emotional.
She remained calm.
He asked whether Claire had encouraged her to turn against her brother.
“No.”
Whether Marian had pressured her.
“No.”
Why, then, had she changed her opinion?
Paige looked across the room at Evan.
“Because I finally read what I signed.”
The documents spoke for themselves.
Afterward, Evan cornered Paige in the courthouse hallway.
“You destroyed this family.”
Paige stopped.
“No. I stopped protecting the person who did.”
Claire heard it from several feet away.
Evan saw her.
For a second, the old fear returned.
Then Claire remembered the kitchen.
The cast.
The camera.
She walked past him without lowering her eyes.
That afternoon came unexpected news.
Thomas Bell had been located.
His attorney wanted to negotiate.
Bell was willing to cooperate.
Rachel told Claire over coffee.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Bell may be prepared to explain who directed the transactions.”
Claire already knew.
But knowing and proving were different things.
The following week, Bell provided emails.
Instructions.
Draft signatures.
Account numbers.
And one devastating message from Evan:
Use Claire’s authorization. If this ever gets questioned, she handled Mom’s finances anyway.
Claire read it twice.
Four years.
Four years of care.
Four years of sacrifice.
Evan had turned those years into camouflage for his theft.
Claire expected rage.
Instead she felt relief.
The truth was finally outside her body.
She no longer had to carry it alone.
But Bell had one more revelation.
The missing money had not all gone to Evan.
Some had been transferred somewhere nobody expected.
An account under another name.
May you like
Marian recognized it instantly.
And when she said the name aloud, Paige began crying.
