Chapter 6 - Claire’s Bargain
Daniel looked at Claire as if he no longer knew the shape of her face.
She stood in the doorway wearing a gray coat and no handcuffs. Her attorney had gotten her out less than two hours earlier.
“You kidnapped my daughter?” Daniel asked.
Claire walked closer. “I told Ray to scare your mother. He got carried away.”
Ray snorted. “Don’t put this on me.”
Claire ignored him. “I can still fix this.”
“Fix it?” Daniel’s voice cracked. “You threw Lily off a balcony.”
“She saw something she wasn’t supposed to see.”
Maria’s stomach turned.
Claire looked at Daniel. “Do you know what your company is worth if you die?”
He stared at her.
“Forty-eight million after taxes and debt,” she continued. “Lily’s trust controls half of it until she turns twenty-five. You thought your lawyers were protecting her. They were protecting money from me.”
Daniel’s grip tightened on the tire iron. “So this is about money.”
“It’s about not spending my life asking permission for what should already be mine.”
Maria said, “Nothing in that house was ever yours enough to kill a child for.”
Claire turned. “You should have minded your own business.”
“My business is keeping children alive.”
Ray laughed. “Touching.”
Claire’s eyes flicked toward him. “Untie Lily.”
Ray did not move.
“I said untie her.”
“And then what?”
“Then Daniel signs the transfer documents.”
Ray smiled slowly. “No. Then Daniel dies, you inherit, and I get the ten percent you promised me.”
Claire’s face hardened. “That wasn’t the deal.”
Maria understood before Daniel did.
Ray had never planned to leave witnesses.
She shouted, “Daniel, down!”
A gun appeared in Ray’s hand.
The shot exploded through the warehouse.
Daniel dropped behind a stack of crates. Maria ran up the final stairs while Ray fired again. Metal sparked beside her head.
Claire screamed and hid behind a support column.
Maria reached Lily and cut the rope against a jagged bolt.
“Can you run?”
Lily nodded through tears.
“Then run when I say.”
Below them, Daniel charged Ray. The two men slammed into the railing.
Claire stepped from behind the column holding the fallen gun.
For one second, Maria thought she would shoot Ray.
Instead Claire aimed at Daniel.
“Stop!” Maria screamed.
Claire’s finger tightened.
May you like
Then Lily shouted the words that froze everyone.
“I know what you did to my real mom!”
