Chapter 10 - The Stepmother's Second FaceClaudia sat alone in a rented apartment overlooking a parking lot.
The room contained a white sofa, a glass table, and a framed print of a beach she had never visited.
There were no family photographs.
No drawings by Sophie.
No music.
Only the hum of the refrigerator and the distant sound of traffic.
For the first time since marrying Daniel, she had nowhere that felt like home.
Her attorney, Rebecca Shaw, sat across from her with a legal pad.
“We need to discuss the timeline again,” Rebecca said.
Claudia rubbed her forehead.
“I've told you.”
“You've told me different versions.”
Claudia looked away.
Rebecca placed her pen on the table.
“Did you know Daniel was going to be confined?”
“Peter said he needed time.”
“Time for what?”
“To persuade Daniel to cooperate.”
“Did Peter say he intended to lock him in the archive?”
Claudia's eyes filled.
“He said Daniel was dangerous.”
“In what way?”
“He had documents. He was going to expose Peter.”
Rebecca waited.
Claudia swallowed.
“And me.”
There it was.
The truth beneath all the excuses.
Claudia had not married Daniel because she was indifferent to him.
That would have made everything easier to explain.
At first, she had liked him.
He was wealthy, certainly, but he was also gentle, thoughtful, and embarrassingly sincere.
He remembered the names of waiters.
He apologized when he arrived late.
He talked about Mara with a sadness that sometimes made Claudia feel like a guest in her own marriage.
And he adored Sophie.
That was the part Claudia had never learned to accept.
Not because she hated the child.
Because she was jealous of the certainty with which Daniel loved her.
He loved Sophie without calculation.
Without suspicion.
Without conditions.
Claudia had spent her life trying to become indispensable to people who could afford to leave her.
Daniel's love for his daughter reminded Claudia that there would always be someone he needed more.
Peter understood that weakness.
He had known Claudia for almost five years, long before introducing her to Daniel.
She had worked as a consultant on several of his property transactions, some legitimate, others deliberately obscured behind layers of subcontractors and shell companies.
Her first serious mistake had been signing a certification for work she knew had not been fully completed.
Peter made the problem disappear.
Then came another contract.
And another favor.
Each time, Claudia told herself she was only doing what people in expensive offices did every day.
When she met Daniel, Peter presented the relationship as an opportunity.
A chance to join the family whose money financed so many of his projects.
Claudia had told herself that any benefits she gained would simply be a reward for finally finding a man who valued her.
But Peter had never stopped calling.
Never stopped requesting information.
Bank passwords.
Travel schedules.
Board documents.
The names of people Daniel trusted.
By the time Claudia realized how deeply she was involved, leaving would have meant admitting years of deception.
Then Daniel discovered the consulting payments.
Everything began collapsing.
Rebecca watched her carefully.
“Claudia, did you give Daniel a sedative?”
Claudia lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Did he know?”
“No.”
“Did you help move him?”
Her voice trembled.
“Peter did most of it. I helped get him downstairs.”
Rebecca wrote something down.
“Did you know the door would be locked?”
Claudia began crying.
“Yes.”
Rebecca set down her pen.
“Why did you keep him there?”
“Peter said he'd ruin us if Daniel exposed the accounts.”
“Ruining your finances is not a justification.”
“I know.”
Rebecca waited.
Claudia wiped her face.
“I brought Daniel food. I tried to convince Peter to let him go.”
“Did you unlock the door?”
“When Peter allowed it.”
“Could you have called the police?”
Claudia stared at her.
“Yes.”
The admission seemed to empty the room of air.
Rebecca leaned forward.
“Then we need to stop describing this as something that merely happened around you.”
Claudia covered her mouth.
“I know.”
Her phone began vibrating.
Peter.
She stared at the screen.
Rebecca noticed.
“Don't answer that without discussing it with me.”
Claudia let the call end.
A message appeared.
We need to talk. Arthur has started looking in Mara's studio.
Claudia felt a cold knot tighten inside her.
She had never told Peter where Mara kept the original architectural plans.
She hadn't known herself.
But she remembered something from the morning Daniel disappeared.
He had been standing beside the antique cabinet, holding a sheet of tracing paper.
When she entered, he folded it and slipped it into his jacket.
“What is that?” she had asked.
“Something Mara wanted me to understand.”
He had looked at her strangely.
Then he'd said, “Claudia, did Peter ever tell you what happened at Eastbank in 2004?”
She remembered the anger in his voice.
The sudden distance between them.
And the moment she realized that her marriage might not survive the truth.
Now another message arrived.
If they find sheet seventeen, they find everything.
Claudia stared at the words.
Rebecca followed her gaze.
“Who sent that?”
Claudia turned the screen away instinctively.
Then stopped.
For years, her first reaction had been to protect Peter.
Even when he humiliated her.
Even when he threatened her.
Even when his instructions made her a criminal.
Rebecca waited.
Finally, Claudia handed her the phone.
“There's something I need to tell you.”
“What?”
Claudia's voice was barely audible.
“Peter wasn't looking for a notebook because of the money.”
Rebecca frowned.
“Then why?”
“Because Mara drew a map.”
“A map of what?”
May you like
Claudia stared toward the window.
“The place where Bell Heritage buried the original evidence.”
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