CHAPTER 3 — THEY TOOK EVERYTHING
Claire did not sleep.
At seven the next morning, she packed Lily’s lunch, brushed her hair, and drove her to school.
Lily talked the entire way.
She wanted to know whether Aunt Olivia would still have a birthday party.
She wanted to know why Daddy had not come home.
She wanted to know why Claire’s eyes were red.
Claire answered as carefully as she could.
“Daddy and I are having a difficult week.”
“Is he mad?”
“No.”
“Are you mad?”
Claire looked at her daughter in the rearview mirror.
“I’m trying not to be.”
At school, Lily kissed her cheek and ran toward the entrance.
Claire watched until she disappeared inside.
Then her phone rang.
It was the wedding and events director at the Port Haven Club.
“Mrs. Bennett, I’m calling to confirm the cancellation.”
Claire frowned.
“What cancellation?”
“The anniversary gala scheduled for next month. Mr. Bennett contacted us yesterday.”
The gala was not simply a party.
It was a major client event for Bennett Coastal Design, the company Claire had inherited from her mother.
Nearly two hundred investors, architects, and developers had been invited.
“He canceled it?”
“He requested that the deposit be refunded to a different account.”
Claire’s hands went cold.
“What account?”
“I’m afraid I’m not authorized to disclose that.”
“I am the owner of the company.”
There was a pause.
“Our records were updated this morning.”
Claire sat straighter.
“Updated how?”
The woman lowered her voice.
“Mr. Bennett is listed as acting chief executive.”
Claire ended the call and immediately opened her company email.
Her password did not work.
She tried the accounting portal.
Access denied.
She called the office.
Her assistant, Dana, answered on the third ring.
“Claire?”
“Why can’t I access anything?”
Dana’s breathing became uneven.
“Mason arrived before six. He brought two attorneys.”
“What did they do?”
“They presented a board resolution saying you had taken an indefinite medical leave.”
Claire stood so quickly the chair scraped across the floor.
“I never signed that.”
“I know.”
“Where is Mason now?”
“In your office.”
Claire drove downtown.
When she reached the twenty-second floor, a security officer blocked the glass doors.
“Mrs. Bennett, I’ve been instructed not to let you enter.”
“This is my company.”
“I’m sorry.”
Through the glass, Claire could see employees pretending not to watch.
Mason stood inside her office, speaking to a man in a dark suit.
Olivia sat behind Claire’s desk.
She was wearing the silver bracelet.
Claire struck the glass once with the flat of her hand.
Olivia looked up.
Their eyes met.
Then Olivia slowly lowered her sleeve over the bracelet.
Mason walked toward the doors but did not open them.
He spoke through the glass.
“You need to go home.”
“You forged my signature.”
“This isn’t the place.”
“You’re sitting in my mother’s company with the woman you impregnated.”
Several employees looked down.
Mason’s face hardened.
“Security.”
Claire turned before they could escort her away.
In the elevator, she called her attorney.
He did not answer.
She called again.
Nothing.
When Claire reached the parking garage, two men were waiting beside her car.
One handed her a thick envelope.
“Claire Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve been served.”
The documents contained three separate filings.
The first requested an emergency freeze on all marital and business assets.
The second accused Claire of misusing company funds.
The third was a temporary custody petition.
Mason claimed Claire had become emotionally unstable after her miscarriage.
He claimed she suffered unpredictable outbursts.
He claimed Lily was no longer safe in her care.
Attached to the petition were private therapy records.
Records Claire had never shown Mason.
But Olivia had known the name of Claire’s therapist.
Olivia had driven her to appointments.
Olivia had been listed as an emergency contact.
Claire called the school immediately.
The receptionist answered.
“I need you to make sure my daughter does not leave with anyone except me.”
There was a pause.
“Mrs. Bennett, Lily was picked up twenty minutes ago.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“By whom?”
“Her father.”
Claire called Mason.
He rejected the call.
She called again.
Voicemail.
Then a photograph arrived.
Lily was sitting at Olivia’s kitchen table with a bowl of cereal.
Olivia’s hand rested on her shoulder.
The silver bracelet gleamed around her wrist.
Mason’s message appeared beneath the photograph.
Lily will stay with us until you calm down.
Claire drove to the beach house.
The door was locked.
She pounded until Olivia appeared behind the window.
“Give me my daughter.”
Olivia opened the door only a few inches.
“You’re frightening her.”
“You took her from school without telling me.”
“Mason is her father.”
“And you are nothing to her.”
Olivia’s expression tightened.
“I’m her aunt.”
“You stopped being her aunt when you climbed into her father’s bed.”
Mason appeared behind Olivia.
“Leave.”
“I’m not leaving without Lily.”
“You were served with a custody petition.”
“A petition is not an order.”
“It will be.”
Lily appeared at the end of the hallway.
“Mommy?”
Claire pushed toward the door, but Mason blocked it with his body.
Lily began crying.
Mason looked back at her.
Then he lowered his voice to Claire.
“See what you’re doing to her?”
Claire stared at him in disbelief.
He had taken her child.
Locked her outside.
And now he was blaming her for Lily’s tears.
Mason closed the door.
The lock clicked.
Claire stood on the porch listening to her daughter cry from inside.
Her phone rang.
This time it was Dana.
“Claire, I found something.”
“What?”
“The forty-thousand-dollar payment wasn’t the first transfer.”
Claire wiped the rain from her face.
“How many were there?”
“Seventeen.”
Claire looked through the window at Mason standing beside Olivia.
May you like
Dana’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“And some of them were authorized with your fingerprint.”
