Chapter 6
By midnight, the hospital floor looked like a federal command center.
Agents at every entrance.
Security guards beside elevators.
Visitors questioned before they entered the NICU.
Dana wanted me transferred to a secure floor.
I refused to leave Noah.
"Then we move Noah," she said.
"He's premature."
"The medical team can transfer him."
"No."
"Clara, someone walked into this hospital carrying a phone meant for you."
"And they failed."
"They got close enough to leave it beside your son's incubator."
That shut me up.
I looked through the glass.
Noah slept beneath warm light.
He had survived Julian.
He had survived emergency delivery.
I would not let adult secrets become the first danger he remembered.
"Where would you move us?"
"Another hospital under protected registration."
"Will his doctors go?"
"A neonatal team will."
I hated every option.
But I nodded.
"Do it."
Rachel sat across the room.
She hadn't spoken much since my father's call.
I noticed.
Dana noticed too.
"Rachel, you should go home."
Rachel looked offended.
"I'm not leaving Clara."
"It wasn't a suggestion."
"Am I under arrest?"
"No."
"Then I'm staying."
Dana studied her.
"So am I."
I looked between them.
"Enough."
They stopped.
I turned to Rachel.
"What else didn't you tell me?"
Her eyes dropped.
"Clara."
"What else?"
"I told you everything."
"No, you told me what I discovered."
"That's not fair."
"Neither was mourning a living father."
She flinched.
Good.
I was tired of being the only person who hurt.
"The red drive. Dad. What else?"
Rachel looked toward Dana.
That was the answer.
"Tell me."
She exhaled.
"Your father believes Julian knew you before he met you."
I stared at her.
"What?"
"I don't understand the details."
"Try."
"Daniel said Arthur had been tracking you for years."
My skin went cold.
"Tracking me?"
"After your mother died, Arthur knew where you went to college. Where you worked."
"Why?"
"He was afraid your father had left files with you."
"I was nineteen."
"He didn't care."
"And Julian?"
Rachel swallowed.
"Your father thinks Arthur encouraged Julian to meet you."
The memory hit me.
A hotel conference in Charlotte.
I was twenty-six.
I had been working for a small consulting firm.
Julian spilled coffee near my laptop and offered to replace it.
I called him arrogant.
He laughed.
He asked me to dinner.
For years, he called it fate.
"That conference."
Rachel nodded.
"Vance Holdings sponsored it."
I had known that.
I had never considered what it meant.
"No."
My voice came out thin.
"No, Julian didn't know who I was."
"I hope you're right."
"Nine years."
Rachel said nothing.
"Nine years, Rachel."
I stood too quickly.
Pain cut through my abdomen.
Dana reached toward me.
I pushed her hand away.
"He loved me."
Neither woman answered.
That hurt more than a lie.
I remembered our first apartment.
Julian painting the living room because we couldn't afford professionals.
The night my mother's old jewelry box broke and he spent two hours repairing the tiny hinge.
How he held me after our first miscarriage.
How he cried when I told him Noah was finally coming.
Those moments had to be real.
Didn't they?
Then I remembered the baby shower.
His fist.
His voice.
Real heir.
I sat again.
"Find him."
Dana nodded.
"We're trying."
"No. Find out when he first accessed records about me."
"We're already searching Vance systems."
"And Arthur?"
"In federal custody."
"I want to talk to him."
Dana shook her head.
"Absolutely not."
"Why?"
"Because he's represented by counsel."
"I don't care."
"The law does."
"Then tell his attorney I know about Project Harbor."
Dana's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
"Because Arthur thinks he still controls the board."
"What board?"
"The people around him."
I leaned forward.
"He needs Beatrice to defend him. He needs Julian loyal. He needs executives afraid. He needs me confused."
Dana listened.
"Arthur doesn't know how much is on the red drive."
"No."
"He doesn't know my father called."
"Probably not."
"Then make him wonder."
Dana almost smiled.
"You want me to rattle him."
"I want him to start blaming people."
Rachel nodded slowly.
"And when Arthur Vance feels betrayed, he talks."
Dana considered it.
"I'll see what can legally be done."
At 2:15 in the morning, Noah and I were transferred.
The receiving hospital placed us under different names.
Noah became Baby Miller.
I became Claire Miller.
It felt strange.
Maybe because Clara Vance had spent years disappearing.
Claire Miller sounded like someone borrowing a life.
Rachel came with us.
Dana didn't.
She returned to the federal office.
At 4:00 a.m., I finally held Noah.
A nurse settled him against my chest.
His body was warm and impossibly light.
His breathing was quick.
His cheek rested against me.
I whispered stories about the grandfather he might have.
The good version.
The man from my childhood.
Not the fugitive hiding in shadows.
Not the father who had watched me build a life without him.
Just Dad.
"You have his nose," I whispered.
That was probably nonsense.
Newborns looked like themselves.
But I wanted a connection untouched by Julian.
Noah's fingers moved against my skin.
I kissed his head.
"You and me."
Rachel stood in the doorway.
"Can I come in?"
I nodded.
She approached slowly.
When she saw Noah, she cried.
"He is so tiny."
"Don't say that where he can hear you."
She smiled.
"He's terrifyingly muscular."
"Better."
She sat.
For a while, we watched him breathe.
Then I asked quietly, "Did Dad know I was pregnant before you told him?"
Rachel looked uncomfortable.
"Yes."
"How?"
"I don't know."
"Did he know I was married to Julian?"
"Yes."
"Before contacting you?"
"Yes."
"Then why now?"
Rachel went still.
That was a question she hadn't asked.
"Why wait until I was pregnant?"
"I don't know."
"Why contact you eight months ago? Why not two years ago?"
"Maybe something changed."
"Exactly."
I looked at Noah.
"Something scared him."
At 6:30 a.m., Dana called.
Her voice sounded energized.
"Arthur reacted."
"To what?"
"We let his lawyer know investigators recovered materials relating to Project Harbor."
"And?"
"He demanded to know whether Marcus Hale had turned state's evidence."
I smiled.
"So he's afraid of Marcus."
"Terrified."
"Why?"
"Arthur wouldn't say."
"Anything about my father?"
"He shut down completely when Daniel's name was mentioned."
Hearing Dad's name from someone else still felt unreal.
"Did you find records about Julian and me?"
Silence.
My stomach sank.
"Dana."
"Yes."
"What did you find?"
"Vance Holdings purchased data from a private investigation firm nine years ago."
I closed my eyes.
"On me."
"Yes."
"When?"
"Four months before you met Julian."
The room went quiet.
Rachel had heard.
Her face crumpled.
I stared at Noah.
"Who authorized it?"
"Arthur."
"Did Julian see it?"
"We found an email."
I knew before she said it.
"From Arthur to Julian?"
"Yes."
"What did it say?"
Dana hesitated.
"Read it."
"Clara—"
"Read it."
I heard keyboard clicks.
Then Dana spoke.
"She's Daniel Mercer's daughter. Get close enough to find out what she knows. Keep it clean."
Everything inside me stopped.
I waited.
"Is that all?"
"No."
"What did Julian reply?"
Another pause.
Then:
"Consider it handled."
My vision blurred.
Nine years.
My marriage began as surveillance.
Every kiss became questionable.
Every anniversary.
Every promise.
Every time Julian said I was the best accident of his life.
None of it had been an accident.
"Clara?"
Dana's voice sounded far away.
"I'm here."
"There are later emails."
I didn't want them.
I needed them.
"Read them."
"Six months after you met, Julian told Arthur he hadn't found evidence you knew about Harbor."
"And?"
"Arthur told him to end the relationship."
My heart pounded.
"What did Julian say?"
"He refused."
I opened my eyes.
"Refused?"
"Yes."
"What exactly?"
Dana read.
"I'm not throwing her away because you're paranoid. Clara isn't involved. Leave her alone."
My chest tightened.
That sounded like Julian.
The Julian I had loved.
"So he started with a lie."
"Yes."
"But maybe later—"
Dana interrupted gently.
"There's another message from last year."
Hope died before she read it.
"What does it say?"
Her voice softened.
"Julian wrote: If Clara ever learns what really happened to Daniel, she'll take everything from us."
I stopped breathing.
"Really happened?"
"That's the phrase."
"He knew Dad was alive."
"It appears so."
"How long?"
"We don't know."
I looked down at Noah.
My tears fell onto the blanket.
Julian had watched me cry every year on the anniversary of my father's death.
He had held me.
Told me grief never really leaves.
All while knowing something.
Maybe everything.
I whispered, "I want him found."
Dana's voice hardened.
"We will find him."
"No."
I wiped my face.
"I don't want him found because I'm worried anymore."
Rachel watched me.
I stared out at the morning light beginning to fill the windows.
"I want him found because I need him alive long enough to answer me."
At 8:03, Dana called again.
"We found Marcus Hale."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"Airport motel outside Richmond."
"Did he have Julian?"
"No."
"My father?"
"No."
"What did he have?"
Dana took a breath.
"Two passports. Seventy thousand dollars in cash. And a phone containing messages with Chloe."
I sat up.
"Chloe?"
"Dozens."
"About what?"
"We're obtaining warrants for the full contents, but previews show financial discussions."
I remembered Chloe at the shower.
Her satisfied smile.
Her supposedly pregnant stomach.
"She was involved."
"Looks that way."
"Where is she?"
"That's the problem."
My grip tightened on the phone.
"What problem?"
"She disappeared from Beatrice's guesthouse sometime last night."
"Federal agents let her leave?"
"She wasn't under arrest."
"Now?"
"Now we want her found."
I looked at Rachel.
"Marcus and Chloe."
Rachel nodded slowly.
"Maybe Julian wasn't sleeping with some random twenty-two-year-old."
My mind raced.
Maybe Chloe wasn't just a mistress.
Maybe she was bait.
A distraction.
Or an accomplice.
Then a nurse entered carrying a sealed envelope.
"For you."
I froze.
"There shouldn't be mail for me here."
She looked confused.
"It was dropped at the desk."
Rachel stood.
"By who?"
"I don't know."
I didn't touch it.
Hospital security came.
Then federal agents.
They opened the envelope.
Inside was a single photograph.
Noah's incubator.
Taken after we had moved hospitals.
Taken that morning.
On the back were six typed words.
You cannot hide him from us.
And beneath them—
May you like
a familiar signature.
Julian Vance.
