Chapter 2 - The Name Beneath Vanessa’s Signature
Margaret unfolded the document completely.
Ethan read the heading first.
TRANSFER OF BENEFICIAL INTEREST.
Then the property description.
Harbor House.
The old waterfront estate his father had supposedly sold twenty years
earlier.
Vanessa’s signature appeared at the bottom.
Dated yesterday.
Directly beneath it was another name.
CLAIRE BENNETT.
Richard stopped breathing.
Margaret watched him.
“You recognize it.”
Richard’s hand tightened around his glass.
Ethan looked from his uncle to his mother.
“Who is Claire Bennett?”
Nobody answered.
Vanessa reached for the paper.
Margaret pulled it back.
“No.”
“This is private.”
Margaret laughed.
“You humiliated me in a public restaurant because you were afraid I’d
put this on the table.”
Ethan stood.
“Vanessa. Who is Claire?”
His wife looked at him.
For the first time, her arrogance was gone.
“She’s someone your family lied about.”
Margaret’s face hardened.
“Careful.”
Vanessa stared directly at her.
“No. You be careful.”
Richard whispered:
“Claire died.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“That’s what Margaret told everyone.”
Ethan turned toward his mother.
Margaret did not deny it.
She folded her hands.
“Claire Bennett was your father’s first wife.”
Ethan went still.
His father, Robert, had been dead for eight years.
Ethan had never heard the name.
Margaret continued.
“And if Vanessa signed Harbor House over to someone using Claire’s name
yesterday, then either she committed fraud…”
May you like
She looked at Vanessa.
“…or a dead woman just came back.”
