Chapter 8: What Richard Had Buried
He came to her room within ten minutes.
He was dressed, which told her he hadn't been sleeping either.
He sat in the same chair he'd occupied earlier that evening and he looked at her for a moment without speaking — the way he did when he was deciding how to begin something difficult.
"How much do you know?" he said finally.
"I know there's a sealed amendment to Grandfather's trust," Claire said.
"Filed four months before it was settled.
I know Patricia Hale filed it.
I know Patricia Hale was legal counsel to a foundation board that included Gerald Aldcroft." She paused.
"And I know Vivienne Aldcroft told someone tonight that you don't know about the girl."
Richard was quiet for a long moment.
"She's right," he said.
"I don't.
Not fully."
Claire waited.
"When your grandfather was dying," Richard said, "he told me there was something he had handled — something years before — that he had never disclosed to the family.
He said it was taken care of.
He said the trust amendment would protect everyone involved and that I should let it stay sealed." He looked at his hands.
"He asked me to trust him.
I did."
"Who is she?" Claire said.
"The girl."
"I don't know her name.
I was never told." He exhaled.
"But I believe — and I have believed this for some time — that your grandfather had a child.
A daughter.
From a relationship before he met your grandmother." He looked at Claire steadily.
"Which would make her your aunt."
The room was very quiet.
"She would have a claim," Claire said.
"Potentially.
Depending on how the trust was structured, depending on the amendment, depending on whether the claim has been legally established." He paused.
"Which is likely what Gerald Aldcroft spent years trying to find out.
And which is likely what Vivienne is trying to do now."
"She's not looking for justice for this woman," Claire said.
"She's looking for leverage."
"No," Richard agreed.
"She's not doing this out of kindness."
Claire looked at the address on her phone.
The private records firm.
Vivienne's bag.
"Dad," she said.
"I think Patricia Hale's files are in that building.
I think Vivienne sent her luggage there tonight because she's not done.
She didn't leave because she was frightened of you.
She left because she found what she came for — or she thinks she knows where it is — and she's moving to the next step."
Richard looked at the address on her screen.
"If there's a living beneficiary who was deliberately excluded," he said slowly, "and if that exclusion can be proven to have been arranged rather than accidental—"
"The trust could be reopened," Claire said.
"Yes."
"And if it's reopened and there's a living claimant—"
"Everything gets recalculated," he said.
Claire stood up and walked to the window for the third time that night.
The city was quieter now.
Past two in the morning.
"We need to find her first," she said.
"Before Vivienne does.
Not to protect the trust." She turned around.
"Because if she's real — if Grandfather had a daughter who was kept secret her whole life — she deserves to know who she is.
Not to be found by Vivienne Aldcroft and used."
Richard looked at his daughter.
"You sound like him," he said quietly.
"When he was at his best."
"Call your legal team," Claire said.
"Tonight.
I don't care about the hour."
"Claire—"
"She moved tonight, Dad.
She's not waiting.
Neither should we."
He looked at her for another moment.
Then he reached into his jacket pocket and took out his phone.
He dialed.
While it rang, Claire sat back down on the bed beside her sleeping baby and opened her laptop again.
They had a name to find.
A woman who had lived her whole life without knowing what she was owed.
And they had a building full of files that someone else was already moving toward.
The phone connected.
Richard began to speak.
May you like
Outside, the city kept its silence.
But somewhere across it, a clock was running.
