Chapter 4 - Room 2806.
Claire wanted to go straight to room 2806.
Naomi refused.
"A hotel key someone handed you is not permission to search another person's room."
Claire looked at Noah's handwriting on the napkin.
"Then we find out whose room it is."
Marcus contacted hotel security from the elevator.
The Aurelia Grand was owned by Bennett Hospitality, but Claire rarely used that fact as leverage.
Tonight was different.
The room had been reserved under the name of Blake Turner, one of Ethan's groomsmen.
Blake had checked in that afternoon and listed Ethan as an authorized guest.
That information was enough to make Claire's stomach tighten.
Naomi called the hotel's general counsel.
Within fifteen minutes, they had a lawful plan.
The hotel would not open the room for Claire.
Instead, management would preserve electronic access records and contact Blake to request his presence.
Blake answered on the third call.
His voice sounded nervous before Naomi even explained why she was calling.
"Is Ethan with you?"
"No," Claire said.
There was a pause.
"Then I'll come down."
Blake arrived in the twenty-eighth-floor corridor wearing dress pants and an untucked shirt.
He looked at Marcus, Daniel, Naomi, and finally Claire.
"Noah told you."
Claire held up the napkin.
"He told me to check your safe."
Blake rubbed both hands over his face.
"I told him that was a terrible idea."
"What's in it?"
"Something Ethan asked me to hold."
Claire waited.
Blake looked toward the elevator as if he expected Ethan to appear.
"I didn't know what it was at first."
"And now?"
"Now I know enough to want it out of my room."
He unlocked the door himself.
Naomi insisted that hotel security record the process and that Blake state clearly that he was inviting them inside.
The suite was smaller than Claire's but just as elegant.
An unopened tuxedo bag hung from the wardrobe.
Blake crossed to the wall safe and entered the code.
Inside sat a slim silver laptop and a sealed white envelope.
He took out the envelope first.
Claire's name was written on the front.
Not Mrs. Mercer.
Claire Bennett.
"Ethan gave me this at dinner," Blake said.
"He told me to put it in the safe until after the ceremony."
Claire opened it.
Inside was a printed schedule for the wedding reception.
Most of it looked ordinary.
First dance.
Dinner service.
Toasts.
Cake.
Then, at 10:15 p.m., one line had been highlighted.
Private family signing - Bennett voting authorization.
Claire looked at Naomi.
The attorney's face went pale.
"There is no family signing scheduled tomorrow."
Blake pointed to the laptop.
"That's why Noah panicked."
Naomi asked who owned it.
"Ethan."
"Then we do not open it."
Blake nodded quickly.
"Fine."
Claire studied the envelope again.
"Why would Ethan give you this?"
Blake hesitated.
"Because he didn't trust Noah anymore."
"Why not?"
Blake looked directly at Claire.
"Because Noah found out Ethan had been recording your mother's board meetings."
Claire felt the night tilt beneath her again.
"How?"
Blake pointed toward the silver laptop but did not touch it.
"You need to ask Ethan where he got the conference-room access code."
Claire already knew the answer.
May you like
Only six people outside the board had that code.
One of them was her uncle Grant.
