Chapter 2
Claire ordered the gates closed before anyone was allowed to leave.
Some of the guests looked offended, others frightened, but nobody argued once they saw the expression on her face. The Morgan family had always known Claire as the quiet one, the daughter who handled accounts while men like Richard and Kevin handled noise.
That misunderstanding had always been useful.
Now it belonged to her.
Noah sat wrapped in a towel on Claire’s lap while a maid cleaned the mud from his hands. He kept glancing toward the ruined cake as if he still could not understand how something meant to make him happy had ended with everyone shouting.
Claire kissed the top of his head and then held out the black card to her father.
“When did you issue this?”
Richard remained seated on a garden chair because his pride was hurt worse than his body. “I didn’t issue anything. It’s a family card.”
“It’s attached to my private control account.”
“So? You move family money all the time.”
“That is not an answer.”
Kevin tried to step in. “Dad only meant—”
“I did not ask you yet.”
The sharpness of it silenced him.
Claire signaled to her head bookkeeper, Martin Hale, who had arrived from the main house carrying a secure tablet. He entered the card number and looked up almost immediately.
“Boss,” he said carefully, “there have been forty-three charges over the last seven months.”
Kevin laughed too loudly. “Forty-three? Then obviously it wasn’t hidden.”
Martin kept reading. “Private club memberships. equestrian bills. imported rackets. jewelry. a summer lease in East Hampton. crew stipends marked under recreation.”
Claire’s eyes moved toward Madison’s tennis bags.
Then to the stacks of expensive party gifts.
Then back to Kevin.
Noah’s voice interrupted the silence.
“Grandpa said Aunt Claire is too busy being smart to count fun money.”
Claire turned to him.
“When did Grandpa say that?”
“Yesterday. To Uncle Kevin.”
Richard’s expression tightened. “He misheard.”
Noah shook his head. “Grandpa said after my party you’d stop checking.”
Martin looked up from the tablet. “There’s a scheduled transfer tonight at midnight.”
Claire slowly rose to her feet.
“How much?”
Martin swallowed. “Four point two million.”
This time even the guests reacted.
Kevin looked at Richard.
Richard looked at the grass.
May you like
And Claire understood the shape of it at last. Noah’s ruined cake had not been the whole event. It had only been the distraction.
The real party was scheduled for midnight.
