Chapter 5 - Claire Met the Dead Man
Claire stopped denying it.
She had met Adrian.
Once.
Six months earlier.
He appeared at a hotel outside Boston after sending instructions through her investigator.
Claire described first moment.
Same face.
Older.
Scar near jaw.
Same voice.
He knew intimate details.
Where they honeymooned.
What song played first dance.
What she whispered during his chemotherapy appointment.
Claire believed immediately.
“Why not call police?” Maya asked.
“He said if I did, Ethan would pay.”
Ethan watched through glass.
Adrian told Claire his “death” had been necessary.
He claimed Vale Biomedical audit had exposed something much larger than accounting fraud.
He said people connected to private medical research contractor threatened him.
He staged disappearance with help.
The body recovered from water was another man planted as him.
That sounded enormous.
Maya asked evidence.
Claire had none beyond Adrian’s word.
“Did he admit switching Emma’s fertility sample?”
“No.”
“What did he want?”
“His frozen specimen.”
“Why?”
“He said somebody was planning to use it.”
“Who?”
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
Then Claire revealed why she attacked Emma.
Three days earlier she received anonymous package.
Inside:
prenatal DNA report.
Photo of Emma leaving obstetric appointment.
Note:
ADRIAN’S CHILD WILL FINISH WHAT ADRIAN STARTED.
Claire panicked.
She believed Emma knowingly carrying Adrian’s baby.
She confronted Emma at mansion while Ethan was away.
Emma denied.
Claire accused her of lying.
Wineglass fell and shattered.
Emma stepped backward, dizzy.
Collapsed.
Claire picked up red heel from floor after it came off Emma? But prompt says Claire holding red shoe, ready to strike. Need explain. Claire admitted losing control. She grabbed Emma’s shoe and raised it toward abdomen.
Not to “save” anyone.
Not defensible.
She had intended to hurt pregnancy.
Ethan arrived before she did.
Claire’s fear did not excuse attempted violence.
“Why scream baby can never be born?”
Claire cried.
“Because Adrian told me once that if he ever had a child, everything he hid would belong to that child.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Inheritance?
Data?
Trust?
Legal rights?
Maybe motive not biological hate but something tied to Adrian’s child.
Then Claire said:
“Adrian wasn’t supposed to be able to have children naturally after chemotherapy. That frozen sample was all he had.”
If unborn baby truly Adrian’s, someone intentionally accessed only preserved specimen capable of creating biological child.
Why?
Ethan asked key question.
“Who benefits from Adrian having an heir?”
Vale Biomedical ownership records supplied answer.
Adrian retained 18% beneficial interest through family trust.
His death caused voting rights to revert to father Richard.
But trust contained unusual clause:
If Adrian died leaving biological descendant conceived from legally preserved reproductive material, descendant’s interest could vest under independent trustee review.
Ethan stared.
“So this baby could own part of Vale Biomedical?”
Not automatically.
Legal interpretation complex.
Consent issues central.
No magical inheritance.
But existence of biological child could reopen trust governance.
That created motive for several people.
Richard Vale might lose influence.
Claire might gain or lose depending marital rights.
Other shareholders might change.
Emma looked toward Claire.
“Is that why you wanted my baby dead?”
Claire shook violently.
“No. I thought Adrian was using the baby to come back.”
Ethan answered:
“Those are not same thing.”
Then Maya arrived with another result.
The recent paternal sample used in DNA report had fingerprints on specimen container.
One match.
Not Adrian.
Richard Vale.
May you like
Claire’s father-in-law.
The man who had identified Adrian’s body eight years ago.
