CHAPTER 12 — EVELYN’S REAL NAME
Rebecca stepped between Claire and Evelyn.
“Is it true?”
Evelyn did not answer.
Claire held up Margaret’s medical file.
“Did you help Daniel move my mother?”
“Yes.”
The single word echoed through the underground room.
Claire’s voice shook.
“You told me my mother hired you.”
“She did.”
“You told me you were investigating Mason.”
“I was.”
“Then why did you sign the transfer?”
“Because your mother asked me to.”
Claire stared at her.
“She asked you to imprison her?”
“No. She asked me to make Mason believe Daniel controlled her.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It was the only way to keep her alive.”
Evelyn moved closer to the emergency light.
“My name is not Evelyn Shaw.”
Rebecca gave a humorless laugh.
“No one in this story seems to have the name they were born with.”
“My name is Elaine Mercer.”
Claire remembered the forged North Harbor loan.
“The dead notary.”
“I was declared dead eight months ago.”
“You notarized the loan documents.”
“I notarized blank collateral forms two years ago at your mother’s request. Daniel altered them after my disappearance.”
Claire struggled to follow.
“Why would my mother sign blank forms?”
“She needed to identify which bank employee was passing information to Gray Tide. The forms were bait.”
“And Daniel used them to steal North Harbor.”
“Yes.”
Claire looked toward the locked steel door.
“Where is my mother?”
“I moved her from Briarwood.”
“To where?”
“Somewhere Mason couldn’t reach.”
“Then how did he reach her tonight?”
Elaine’s composure finally cracked.
“He wasn’t supposed to know.”
“You used her voice to bring me to the storage unit.”
“No.”
“The phone was hidden inside your archive box.”
“I did not place it there.”
Rebecca crossed her arms.
“Then who did?”
Elaine looked toward the ceiling speaker.
“Daniel.”
Claire remembered Daniel’s warning.
Her mother had failed to tell her not to trust Elaine.
Perhaps Daniel was trying to divide them.
Perhaps Elaine had betrayed them.
Every fact seemed to contain two possible truths.
The speaker activated again.
Daniel’s voice remained calm.
“Claire, place the North Harbor file beneath the door.”
Claire looked at the bottom of the steel door.
A narrow document slot opened.
“You already have control of the company,” she said. “Why do you need this file?”
“Because your mother recorded names.”
“What names?”
“People who participated in transactions that should never become public.”
“Gray Tide executives?”
“Judges. Bank officers. Doctors. State officials.”
Rebecca whispered, “It’s a protection ledger.”
Daniel heard her through the speaker.
“Yes, Rebecca. And you were once one of its entries.”
Rebecca went pale.
Claire looked at her.
“What does he mean?”
Rebecca said nothing.
Daniel continued.
“Ask her why she married Mason.”
Claire turned slowly.
“You said Mason married you.”
“He did.”
“Why?”
Rebecca’s mouth tightened.
“My father worked for Gray Tide.”
“What did he do?”
“He managed private acquisitions.”
Daniel’s voice came through the speaker.
“Rebecca’s father helped us obtain properties from owners who were unwilling to sell.”
Claire understood the euphemism.
“How?”
Rebecca looked down.
“Pressure. False debts. medical evaluations. Family disputes.”
“The same strategy Mason used against me.”
“Yes.”
“Were you involved?”
“At first.”
Claire felt betrayed again, though she had known Rebecca for only a few hours.
“How many people did you help him destroy?”
“Three.”
“And then?”
“I found out what happened to the people after we took their property.”
Daniel interrupted.
“She developed a conscience at an inconvenient time.”
Rebecca looked directly at the speaker.
“I copied the ledger.”
“That copy is incomplete.”
“But Margaret’s isn’t.”
Claire held the North Harbor file tighter.
The underground room was not merely hiding medical records.
It was hiding evidence against everyone connected to Gray Tide.
“What happens if I give you the file?” Claire asked.
“Lily comes home.”
“And my mother?”
A pause.
“Your mother made her decisions.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the only one you will receive.”
Claire glanced at the filing cabinets.
The file in her hands did not contain a ledger.
Only maps and planning documents.
Perhaps her mother had hidden the real evidence somewhere else.
Claire slid the empty folder through the document slot.
Footsteps approached the other side.
Someone picked it up.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then Daniel’s voice changed.
“You think I won’t recognize a decoy?”
The speaker went silent.
A mechanical sound came from the ceiling.
Elaine looked upward.
“We need to get out.”
“What is that?” Claire asked.
“The flood-control system.”
Water began pouring through vents near the floor.
The underground room had once been part of the old shipping station.
It was designed to flood during coastal fires.
Rebecca pulled open cabinet drawers, searching for tools.
Claire struck the steel door with both hands.
“Daniel!”
Only silence answered.
The water reached Claire’s ankles.
Then her phone vibrated.
One bar of service remained.
A message from Olivia appeared.
I have Lily. Mason doesn’t know.
A second message followed.
I can bring her to you, but you must promise to protect my baby.
Claire stared at the screen.
Olivia was pregnant with Mason’s child.
May you like
But the next message changed everything.
Mason isn’t the father.
