Chapter 5: What Claire Had Been Running From
They kept Claire in hospital for two nights.
Dehydration.
Mild malnutrition.
The bruise on her cheekbone was documented.
A social worker came on the second morning and spoke to her alone for forty minutes.
Daniel waited in the corridor with a paper cup of coffee that went cold.
When the social worker came out, she looked at him carefully before she spoke.
"Your wife is going to be all right," she said.
"Physically."
"And the other kind?"
"She's asked to speak with you.
Alone.
Tonight, if you're able."
He was able.
He sat in the chair beside Claire's bed that evening while the ward quieted around them.
Lily was at his sister's house.
Vanessa was — he didn't know where Vanessa was.
He'd had the locks changed the morning after the ambulance came.
He'd sent two words by text: *Get out.* She hadn't replied.
Claire looked better with two days of fluids and food and sleep.
She looked like herself, almost.
Except for the way she held her hands together in her lap, very still, like she was keeping something from moving.
"I need to tell you something," she said.
"Okay."
"I need you to let me finish before you say anything."
"Claire—"
"Please."
He nodded.
She looked at the window.
The sky outside was dark and ordinary.
"When I left — the first time, eight months ago — I didn't leave because of you.
I left because I found something.
In your office.
In the files you keep in the locked drawer." She paused.
"I know you think I don't know where the key is.
I've known for three years."
Daniel said nothing.
He had promised.
"There were documents.
Transfers.
A company name I didn't recognize.
And a second name on the account — not yours." She turned back to him.
"Vanessa's."
The paper cup was still in his hand.
He set it on the bedside table.
"I didn't know what it meant," Claire continued.
"I thought maybe it was a business arrangement.
I took photographs of the documents on my phone.
I was going to ask you about it, but then I — I panicked.
I didn't know who you were anymore.
I didn't know what I'd married.
So I left.
I went to my sister's.
I tried to figure out what the documents meant."
"Why didn't you tell me?
Why didn't you just ask me?"
"Because one of the documents had my signature on it, Daniel." Her voice was very steady.
"My signature.
On a transfer I never made.
And I didn't know if you knew.
I didn't know if you were part of it or if you were being used the same way I was." She looked at him.
"I still don't know.
That's why I'm telling you now.
Because I need to know."
The monitor beside her bed beeped once, quietly.
"I didn't know," he said.
She watched his face.
"I didn't know about any of it," he said.
"The account, the transfers, your signature — none of it.
Vanessa handles the administrative side of the business.
Has for four years.
I trusted her." He stopped.
"I trusted her completely."
Claire closed her eyes.
"Then she's been doing it for longer than I thought," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"When I came back — two months after I left — I came back because I'd found out more.
I'd had the documents looked at.
The transfers go back seven years, Daniel.
Seven years of small amounts, different accounts, always routed through companies that dissolve within eighteen months." She opened her eyes.
"She's taken a lot of money.
I came back to tell you.
And when I got here, Vanessa was alone in the house with Lily.
And she knew I knew.
I could see it the moment she opened the door." A long pause.
"She said if I said anything to you, she would tell you I had been the one moving the money.
She had documents that said so.
She said she had built a case that would send me to prison and take Lily from me.
And I believed her."
"So you let her put you in that room."
"I thought it would be a few days.
I thought she'd calm down.
I thought I could find a way to get a message to you." Her voice didn't waver, but her hands tightened in her lap.
"I didn't know it would be six weeks."
Daniel stood up.
He walked to the window.
The car park below was half empty, lit by yellow lamps.
"She has the documents," he said.
"The ones with your signature."
"Yes."
"Then we need to get to them before she does anything with them."
"Daniel." Claire's voice stopped him.
"There's one more thing."
He turned.
"The photographs I took.
Of the original documents.
I kept them.
May you like
I sent them to a cloud account she doesn't know about, the night before she locked me in." Claire held his gaze.
"I have everything."
