Chapter 7 - THE STRANGER AT THE GATE
Richard Cole arrived three days later.
He didn't sneak around.
He walked through the front gate in broad daylight.
Mr. Adamu recognized him immediately.
"You."
Richard stopped.
"It's been a long time."
Mrs. Adamu appeared behind her husband and went pale.
Richard looked toward Clara.
"You look like your mother."
Clara felt a strange ache.
"You knew her?"
"Very well."
They sat in the living room.
Richard explained that Clara's father had invested with him years earlier. After the business became profitable, part of Clara's inheritance came from those investments.
Mrs. Adamu had later gained access to funds she wasn't entitled to control.
Mr. Adamu looked at his wife.
"Is this true?"
She remained silent.
Richard placed copies of bank records on the table.
Mr. Adamu's hands trembled.
Transfers.
Withdrawals.
Signatures.
His wife's name.
"You told me her father's estate was empty."
Mrs. Adamu finally spoke.
"I was going to replace it."
"When?"
"I needed time."
"It's been years!"
"I made mistakes!"
Clara stood silently.
Mrs. Adamu looked at her.
"I fed you. Gave you somewhere to live."
Clara's expression changed.
"You made me sleep outside your gate."
Mrs. Adamu stopped.
"You made a pregnant girl with a fever work for food that belonged partly to a household funded with money taken from her father."
The room became silent.
Mr. Adamu sat down.
He looked broken.
Richard then revealed one more fact.
Not all the inheritance was gone.
Most had been protected by Clara's father's lawyer.
Clara still owned property and investments.
She had never been penniless.
She had only been made to believe she was.
Mrs. Adamu looked toward the floor.
But Richard wasn't finished.
"There's something else."
Everyone looked at him.
"Clara's father suspected what was happening. That's why he changed the trust."
Clara swallowed.
"Changed it how?"
Richard looked directly at her.
"When you turned nineteen, control of everything transferred automatically to you."
Clara's nineteenth birthday had been six days earlier.
She was no longer dependent on the Adamus.
She could leave whenever she wanted.
But before Clara could process that freedom, Richard said:
"And there is one property in particular you need to know about."
Mrs. Adamu suddenly stood.
"Don't."
Richard ignored her.
"The house you're standing in."
Mr. Adamu froze.
Richard continued.
"Part of the money used to purchase this property came from Clara's father."
Clara stared around the living room.
The house where she had been treated like a servant.
May you like
The house she'd been told she had no right to enter.
Might partly belong to her.
