Chapter 3 - Michael Was Already Trying to Leave
Daniel found Michael in the underground garage.
His oldest friend was standing beside a black sedan with a suitcase in his hand.
“Going somewhere?”
Michael froze.
They had known each other since freshman year at Yale.
Michael had stood beside Daniel at his wedding.
He had held Sophie the day she came home from the hospital.
Now he looked like a stranger caught halfway through an escape.
“I have an early flight.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“To where?”
“Chicago.”
“At midnight?”
Michael set down the suitcase.
“What happened upstairs was horrible, but I have nothing to do with it.”
Daniel held up the trust amendment.
Michael’s expression changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“Interesting first question.”
Claire arrived behind Daniel with Sophie now asleep against her shoulder.
Michael looked at the baby.
Relief crossed his face.
Real relief.
Daniel noticed.
Then Michael saw Eleanor being escorted into the garage by security.
His expression hardened.
“You opened the safe.”
Claire answered.
“Yes.”
Michael looked at Eleanor.
“You promised me you destroyed it.”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“You knew.”
Michael closed his eyes.
“Not what you think.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Everyone keeps saying that tonight.”
Michael looked at the document.
“Robert asked me to witness it.”
“Why?”
“He said the trust was under attack.”
“By who?”
“I didn’t know.”
Daniel grabbed Michael’s jacket.
“Then why sign?”
“Because your father had just shown me proof that someone was trying to change Sophie’s beneficiary status before she was born.”
Daniel released him.
Claire stared.
“Before she was born?”
Michael nodded.
“Three months before.”
Sophie had not even had a legal name then.
Yet someone had already been preparing for her inheritance.
Daniel felt sick.
“Who?”
“Robert wouldn’t tell me.”
Eleanor laughed bitterly.
“He didn’t trust you enough.”
Michael turned on her.
“He trusted me more than you.”
“Enough.”
Daniel’s voice stopped both of them.
He looked at Michael.
“Did you lock the balcony door?”
“No.”
“My access code did.”
Michael’s face tightened.
“My code was cloned six weeks ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I changed it.”
“Apparently not.”
Michael looked toward the security cameras.
“Check the office.”
They did.
The security room was empty.
One terminal had been wiped.
But a camera in the service corridor captured someone leaving three minutes after Sophie fell.
A woman.
Dark dress.
Silver hair.
Claire leaned closer to the screen.
“That looks like Eleanor.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
Eleanor shook her head.
“It isn’t me.”
The woman turned slightly toward the camera.
Her face became visible.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Claire whispered, “Who is that?”
Daniel had not seen the woman in twenty years.
But he knew her.
His father’s younger sister.
Margaret Whitmore.
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The aunt Daniel had been told died in a boating accident when he was sixteen.
And she had just walked out of his security office alive.
