Chapter 7
Room 27 did not look important.
Dust.
Shelves.
Old ledgers.
Furniture wrapped in cloth.
Then I found the red box behind a false panel beneath a cabinet.
Anna had hidden it well.
The brass key opened it.
Inside were account printouts, photographs, a small voice recorder, and one sealed envelope addressed to me.
Richard.
Not Mark.
Me.
My hands went cold.
I opened it.
If you are reading this, either I finally got through to Ethan or Claudia made a mistake.
I sat down.
Anna wrote that she had discovered money moving through old Whitaker charitable accounts into businesses controlled by Claudia’s relatives.
Not millions.
Smaller amounts.
Regular.
Quiet.
Enough to buy loyalty without drawing attention.
Then the letter changed.
This isn’t why I’m afraid.
I kept reading.
Claudia knows Mark is insecure around you. She keeps telling him you will eventually choose Ethan over him.
My jaw tightened.
Choose a three-year-old over his father?
Succession poison.
Old families love it.
Anna continued.
She is making Mark afraid of his own son before the boy is old enough to understand his name.
I looked toward the ceiling.
Ethan had not been punished because he was difficult.
He had been punished because Claudia had spent months teaching Mark to see his son as leverage between himself and me.
Then I reached the final line.
If I disappear, ask Mark what happened at the lake house.
May you like
I closed my eyes.
My son had never mentioned any lake house.
