Chapter 7: The Last Thing Claire Said
Dominic called the number from the study, with Grace beside him and a recording device connected to the line.
It rang twice.
"Dominic." Claire's voice was composed.
Warm, even.
The voice he had heard across dinner tables and in darkened rooms for two years.
"I'm glad you called back."
"Where are you?"
"Somewhere comfortable.
I want you to know I'm not your enemy."
"You locked my housekeeper in a cellar for three days."
A brief pause.
"That was Nathan's decision.
I told him to send her away.
I didn't specify how."
"The folder says differently.
The note at the back is in your handwriting."
Silence.
Then: "You found the folder."
"Mia hid it well.
Not well enough."
"She's a clever woman." Something shifted in Claire's tone — not quite respect, but its cold cousin.
"I always thought you underestimated her."
"Tell me about your father."
Another pause, longer this time.
"My father is a businessman."
"With three names and a Cayman account."
"Dominic." Her voice softened.
"I want to make you an offer.
The trust — Elena's trust — I don't need all of it.
I never needed all of it.
My father's terms were aggressive.
I've been trying to find a way to separate myself from his plan for six months."
"Is that what you were doing when you had Elena k*lled?"
"I was twenty-six years old when Elena died.
I didn't know what my father had arranged until it was already done.
By the time I understood, I was already in your life.
Already in too deep to walk away without consequences."
"So you stayed.
And you got engaged.
And you waited for the trust."
"I stayed because—" She stopped.
Started again.
"It doesn't matter why I stayed.
What matters is that I'm offering you a clean resolution.
I give you my father's location, his full financial structure, every account and alias.
You give me a twelve-hour head start."
Grace wrote on her notepad and turned it toward Dominic: *Keep her talking.*
"Why would I give you anything?" he said.
"Because my father is worth more to you than I am.
He's been running this kind of operation for twenty years.
Elena wasn't the first.
The DA's office has been trying to find a thread into his network for a decade.
I am that thread."
"You're also a woman who watched a four-year-old girl cry for three days and did nothing."
The line was quiet for a long moment.
"That," Claire said, and her voice was different now — thinner, the warmth fully gone, "is the one thing I can't defend."
"Then don't."
"Dominic—"
"I have Raymond Holt.
I have his written statement.
I have the wire transfer records, the contract, and your handwritten note.
My attorney has already been in contact with the district attorney's office.
You have nothing left to offer me that I don't already have."
The silence on the line was the longest yet.
"Where is my father?" Dominic asked.
Claire laughed.
It was a short sound, without humor.
"You already know," she said.
"Or Grace does.
She's in the room with you, isn't she."
Grace looked up.
"Goodbye, Claire," Dominic said.
"Dominic." Her voice dropped to something almost quiet.
"For what it's worth — the first six months were real.
Before I understood what my father expected.
I want you to know that."
He looked at the recording device on the desk.
"It isn't worth anything," he said.
"Not anymore."
He ended the call.
Grace was already on her phone.
"We have the location," she said.
"Her father's been in a property in Westchester under the name Harlan Cross — no relation to Nathan — for the past three weeks." She paused.
"The DA is ready to move."
"Then let them move."
Grace nodded and stepped into the corridor.
Dominic sat at the desk for a moment in the quiet.
The folder was still there, closed, in the center of the desk.
May you like
He picked it up and placed it in Grace's briefcase.
Then he went to find Mia and Harper.
