Chapter 7 - The Room of Photographs
Lily pushed the heavy oak door open, stepping inside the dust-covered room. The air was cool and smelled faintly of old paper, lavender, and leather—the exact scent her mother used to wear. She clicked her flashlight around the space, revealing walls lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, antique paintings, and framed photographs.
Every photograph on the walls featured the same two people: her late mother, Eleanor, and a younger, unrefined version of Claire standing beside her in various university campuses across Europe. Claire had not been an aristocratic stranger who met Ethan at a charity gala; she had been Eleanor’s personal assistant and distant cousin fifteen years ago.
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Lily walked over to a heavy mahogany desk sitting in the center of the room. On top of the desk sat a large, leather-bound journal with a lock mechanism on the side that matched the exact dimensions of the silver key. Beside the journal was an audio tape recorder from a decade prior, its red standby light faintly glowing from an external backup battery.
Lily placed the flashlight on the desk, pointing the beam at the journal. She used the tip of the key to press the internal release button on the book's brass clasp. The leather cover popped open, revealing pages upon pages of handwritten notes, bank receipts, and medical files detailing Claire’s real identity—an identity built on forged credentials and stolen trust funds.
