Chapter 6 - Claire Finally Meets Ethan’s First Wife
Emily agreed to meet investigators first.
Then she agreed to speak with Claire by secure video.
Claire was still hospitalized.
Emily appeared on screen with short brown hair and tired eyes.
She was forty-one.
Alive.
Claire did not know whether to feel relieved or terrified.
Emily spoke first.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For putting your name in that wall.”
Claire almost laughed from disbelief.
“You did that before I knew Ethan.”
“I knew your work.”
Emily explained that she planned to contact Claire’s accounting firm.
Before she could, Margaret discovered she had copied records.
Emily became frightened.
She believed Charles had enough influence to ruin her professionally.
Ethan promised to leave with her.
Then he changed his mind.
“He said his father could explain everything.”
Emily no longer trusted him.
She fled.
A friend at Harborlight helped her relocate privately.
Emily herself sent the first message saying she wanted no contact.
But not the later messages.
Someone continued impersonating her after she stopped communicating.
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
“I had records, but I didn’t understand which transactions were illegal.
And I was scared.”
Claire understood fear.
She did not pretend fear made every decision ideal.
Then Emily revealed the most important part.
The $480,000 account had actually been created for her.
Charles secretly paid her to remain silent.
Emily accepted the money.
Claire stared.
“You took it?”
“Yes.”
Emily did not excuse herself.
“I was afraid, angry, and broke. I told myself taking their money was
survival.”
Later she regretted it.
She preserved the ledgers because she wanted the truth available if the
Morgans ever targeted someone else.
Claire asked why Margaret wanted her dead.
Emily looked directly into the camera.
“Because you found something I never found.”
Claire’s pulse jumped.
“What?”
May you like
“Charles’s original trust amendment.”
Claire had no idea what she meant.
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