Chapter 11 - Claire’s first explanation
Claire and I met through lawyers.
Neutral office.
No Ethan.
She looked exhausted.
“I never wanted Eliza hurt.”
“I believe that.”
She looked surprised.
“That doesn’t help.”
“No.”
“Why did you hide her?”
“I told you.”
“Tell me again without the word panic.”
She stared.
Then:
“I wanted to control when you found out.”
There.
“Why?”
“Because I knew what you would do.”
“What?”
“Go after Leonard.”
I laughed once.
“You were right.”
“That’s not funny.”
“No.”
She continued:
“You’d go after everyone.”
“My father is dead.”
“You would go after his estate lawyers. Security people. Trustees. Anyone who touched it.”
I looked down.
Maybe.
“Did you think I’d hurt you?”
Claire did not answer immediately.
That mattered.
“Claire.”
“I didn’t know.”
Pain.
Nine years married.
“I have never hit you.”
“No.”
“Threatened you?”
“Not physically.”
“What does that mean?”
“You become… enormous when you’re angry.”
I almost scoffed.
Then remembered Ethan asking:
Scary mad?
Claire continued:
“Everyone moves.”
There.
“When you’re angry, attorneys get calls. Cars appear. Men stand outside buildings. Accounts freeze. People lose contracts.”
Some of that was caricature.
Some was real.
I had weaponized influence before.
Not always illegally.
Still.
Claire said:
“I thought if I told you without a plan, there would be collateral damage.”
“So you continued my father’s lie.”
“Yes.”
“For twenty-two months.”
“Yes.”
“And then you locked my daughter behind a wall.”
Her face collapsed.
“I did not know she was definitely yours.”
“Stop.”
She closed her mouth.
“Say that again only if you actually believe uncertainty justifies what you did.”
Claire cried.
“No.”
May you like
Good.
Accuracy starting.
