Chapter 3 - Claire Admits She Hid Four Transfers
Claire admitted she knew about four transfers.
Not because she stole them.
Because Thomas asked her to approve them.
He told her Richard had quietly agreed to cover medical treatment for
someone in the family.
Claire never saw the recipient’s name.
The payments totaled $210,000.
Margaret stared at her.
“You approved two hundred ten thousand dollars without asking me?”
Claire looked ashamed.
“Thomas said it was private.”
“Whose treatment?”
Claire looked at Thomas.
He remained silent.
Richard demanded an answer.
Thomas finally said:
“Eleanor.”
The name changed Margaret’s expression.
Eleanor Vale was Richard and Thomas’s older sister.
Officially, she had died eighteen years earlier after leaving the family
following a bitter inheritance dispute.
Richard stared at his brother.
“Eleanor is dead.”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
Margaret sat down.
Daniel whispered:
“What?”
Thomas said Eleanor had survived an overdose eighteen years earlier.
Their father, William Vale, arranged private treatment under another
surname to avoid scandal.
Eleanor later chose not to return.
Thomas had remained in contact.
Richard had not.
The $210,000 Claire approved had paid for a neurological rehabilitation
program after Eleanor suffered a stroke.
Richard looked betrayed.
“You let me believe my sister was dead.”
Thomas’s eyes filled.
“Dad made me promise.”
Richard almost lunged forward.
Then stopped himself.
The violence already committed that night had solved nothing.
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He asked the harder question.
“If four transfers helped Eleanor, where did the other seven go?”
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