Chapter 6 - Ten Minutes to Choose.
Claire did not cry when she told Alexander what happened.
That frightened him more than tears would have.
She spoke like someone reciting a disaster she had repeated so often in her own mind that the pain had been worn smooth around the edges.
Sixteen months earlier, Sophie had developed a high fever while Claire was working a double shift at the diner.
Claire had no insurance worth using and less than forty dollars in her checking account.
She swallowed her pride and called Margaret.
Margaret sent a car.
Claire believed, for one desperate hour, that the grandmother of her child had finally decided to help.
Instead, the car took them to a private law office owned by David Mercer, the Hale family's longtime attorney.
"Mercer was there?"
Alexander asked.
Claire nodded.
"He put the papers in front of me."
She glanced at Sophie, who had fallen asleep curled against the side of the hospital bed.
"I refused to sign."
Alexander's hands curled into fists.
"Then what?"
"Your mother took Sophie into another room."
Claire's voice finally cracked.
"I heard her crying."
Alexander looked at the floor.
"Margaret came back alone and told me the police were downstairs."
Claire continued.
"She said she had already reported me for stealing from the family and taking Sophie without authorization."
"There was no authorization required."
"I know that now."
Claire gave him a bitter look.
"At the time, I had a forged document with your signature saying otherwise."
Alexander had no answer.
"She said if I signed away any claim to Hale money, she would let me leave with Sophie."
Claire looked toward the black folder.
"If I refused, she said I would spend the night in jail and Sophie would go home with her."
"And Mercer witnessed this?"
"He notarized it."
Edmund's face darkened.
"That explains the filing."
Alexander looked at the offshore transfer receipt.
"But the half million dollars?"
Claire laughed once.
"I never saw a dollar."
"Did you ever open an account in the Cayman Islands?"
"I have never been to the Cayman Islands."
Alexander looked at Edmund.
"Then somebody used her identity."
Claire closed her eyes.
"Somebody used everything."
Alexander sat beside the bed.
"Why didn't you go to the police afterward?"
Claire looked at him in disbelief.
"I did."
He froze.
"The officer took one look at the documents and called Mercer."
Her mouth tightened.
"By the time I finished explaining, I was the unstable wife trying to extort a wealthy family."
Alexander felt sick.
"I went to three attorneys."
Claire continued.
"The first wanted a retainer I couldn't afford."
"The second suddenly stopped returning my calls."
"The third told me privately that David Mercer had contacted him and warned him the Hale family would bury his firm in litigation."
Edmund swore softly under his breath.
Alexander had never heard the butler swear before.
Claire looked at Alexander.
"You want to know the worst part?"
He nodded.
"I still thought you knew."
The words were almost too quiet to hear.
"I thought every threat came from you."
Alexander leaned forward.
"Claire, I swear to you—"
She raised a hand.
"Don't swear anything tonight."
He stopped.
"I cannot survive another promise from a Hale."
Alexander absorbed that without defending himself.
A nurse entered to check Claire's oxygen level.
Sophie stirred but did not wake.
Alexander watched his daughter sleep and saw how thin her wrist looked against the blanket.
He took out his phone.
"What are you doing?"
Claire asked.
"Calling my attorney."
"Mercer?"
"No."
Alexander's mouth hardened.
"I'm calling someone Mercer hates."
He dialed Naomi Price, a federal litigation attorney who had once represented a competitor in a brutal corporate case against Hale Holdings.
She answered on the fourth ring.
"Alexander Hale calling me after midnight is either very good news or very bad news."
"Bad."
"How bad?"
"Forgery, coercion, identity theft, possible wire fraud, misuse of charitable funds, and a child who was intentionally deprived of support."
There was a pause.
"Who did it?"
Alexander looked at his mother’s name on the transfer documents.
"My mother."
Naomi became fully awake.
"Do not confront anyone else."
Alexander almost smiled at the timing.
"That part is too late."
"Preserve every document."
"Already doing it."
"Do not let the originals leave your control."
Alexander glanced at Edmund.
"Understood."
"And Alexander?"
"Yes?"
"If David Mercer touched any of this, assume he is already destroying evidence."
The call ended.
Alexander looked at Edmund.
"We need to secure the estate archive and company servers tonight."
Edmund nodded.
"I can call the head of information security."
Claire opened her eyes.
"You think the evidence is at the estate?"
"Some of it."
She shook her head.
"No."
Alexander looked at her.
"What?"
"Your mother is too careful."
Claire shifted painfully against the pillow.
"She keeps copies somewhere else."
"How do you know?"
Claire looked toward Sophie.
"Because Sophie saw her hide them."
The sleeping child stirred at the sound of her name.
Claire gently touched her hair.
"Last winter, when we came to the estate, Margaret left Sophie alone in the hall while she dragged me into the study."
"Sophie wandered downstairs."
"She told me later that Grandma carried a red box into a room beneath the kitchen."
Edmund's eyes sharpened.
"The old wine cellar."
Alexander looked at him.
"There's a locked section behind it."
Edmund nodded slowly.
"Your father used it as a records vault before the renovation."
Alexander stood.
"Can you open it?"
Edmund hesitated.
"I know where the key used to be."
Sophie opened her eyes.
She looked at the butler, then at her father.
"The key isn't there anymore."
Alexander stared at her.
"How do you know?"
Sophie reached beneath the collar of her pale beige dress.
A thin string hung around her neck.
May you like
At the end of it was a small brass key.
"Mommy told me never to lose it."
