Chapter 2 - Arthur Bennett
Arthur Bennett was sixty-four, silver-haired, controlled, and wealthy enough that people usually lowered their voices when he entered a room.
To Claire, however, he had always been something less dramatic and more difficult.
Her father.
A man who loved his family but spent much of Claire’s childhood traveling, locking documents in his study, and refusing to explain where he had been.
Arthur crossed the banquet hall without acknowledging Daniel.
He went directly to Lily.
“Sweetheart.”
Lily reached toward him.
Arthur touched her hair gently, then looked at Daniel.
The warmth disappeared.
“You put your hands on my granddaughter.”
Daniel straightened his tuxedo.
“She shouldn’t have been here.”
Arthur’s expression hardened.
“That was your answer?”
Vanessa began backing toward a side exit.
Arthur noticed.
“Vanessa Price.”
Claire turned sharply.
“You know her?”
Vanessa gave a bitter laugh.
“Apparently better than you do.”
Daniel tried to interrupt.
“This isn’t the place.”
Arthur looked at him.
“You chose the place.”
Only then did Claire notice the folder beneath Arthur’s arm.
He had not arrived because of her phone call.
He had already been in the hotel.
Arthur opened the folder.
Bank transfers.
Daniel Carter Consulting.
Vantage Events LLC.
Bellmont Hospitality Services.
One figure jumped off the page.
$86,400.
Claire recognized it immediately.
That was almost exactly the amount missing from the medical account used for Lily’s specialist care.
For months Daniel had blamed insurance delays.
Claire had taken extra work.
Sold jewelry inherited from her mother.
Delayed mortgage payments.
All while Daniel attended luxury events and carried on an affair.
“What is this?” Claire asked.
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa looked genuinely confused.
Arthur answered.
“Money that should have paid for Lily’s treatment.”
Claire stared at Daniel.
“You took it?”
“It was temporary.”
Arthur handed her another page.
The money had first entered a dormant company called Vantage Events.
Vanessa’s old company.
“I closed Vantage two years ago,” she said.
“Someone reactivated its vendor credentials,” Arthur replied.
“I didn’t.”
Bank data supported her claim. No money had reached Vanessa personally.
Daniel had used her company name.
Arthur’s audit suggested he had been quietly tracing those transactions for days.
Claire suddenly understood why he was already downstairs.
“You came here for Daniel.”
Arthur did not answer immediately.
Vanessa did.
“No. He came because this hotel is where it started.”
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
“Vanessa.”
“Does she know?”
“Not here.”
“Does Claire know what happened at Halcyon House?”
Claire turned to her father.
“What is Halcyon House?”
Silence.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“Ask him why my mother disappeared three weeks after meeting a man named Adrian Gray.”
Arthur’s face barely changed.
But Claire saw it.
May you like
Recognition.
And guilt.
