For several seconds after Claire said the name, Daniel simply stared at her.
“Say it again.”
“Richard Bennett told me my father had no secrets left,” Claire said. “But Julian said someone else knew where the second embryo was. He gave me a name.”
Daniel waited.
“Martin Ellis.”
The questioned-document expert.
The man who had examined the forged signature on her father's trust amendment.
The man who had spent hours reviewing documents and handwriting samples with Daniel.
The man Claire had trusted because her father had trusted him first.
Daniel's expression changed slowly. “That doesn't make sense.”
“I know.”
“Martin has been helping us.”
“Maybe.”
Daniel shook his head. “No. He identified the forged signature. He helped establish that the amendment was fabricated. He gave us evidence against Julian's family.”
Claire looked at the files spread across the table.
“Unless he was giving us only the evidence he wanted us to find.”
Neither of them spoke.
The investigator standing nearby had heard enough to understand the problem. He immediately requested Martin's full professional records, financial history, and communications connected to the case. No one accused him of anything yet. But the atmosphere inside the hidden room changed.
Claire looked again at the old photographs of herself.
Someone had watched her for years.
Someone had kept records.
Someone had known about the fertility treatments.
And someone had known enough about her father's estate to understand exactly what Claire would inherit.
Daniel picked up a folder from the floor. “Your father used Martin once before.”
Claire frowned.
“For what?”
“Property litigation. Eleven years ago.”
Claire remembered nothing about it.
Daniel opened the file. Her father's name appeared on the first page, followed by Martin's.
“He wasn't just a questioned-document expert,” Daniel said. “He worked for your father's law firm as a forensic consultant long before Julian ever met you.”
Claire's stomach tightened.
“So he knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“And my inheritance.”
“Possibly.”
The investigator returned with a preliminary report.
Martin Ellis had not accessed the clinic records directly. There was no evidence of that.
But he had received a payment from Northbridge Medical Holdings.
One payment.
$42,000.
The date was two months before Claire's first confrontation with Julian.
Claire stared at the number.
“What was the payment for?”
The investigator shook his head. “Consulting.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
“That's enough for us to bring him in.”
But before they could leave, another discovery stopped them.
A small envelope had been hidden behind the bottom drawer of the desk.
It was old.
The paper had yellowed along the edges.
Claire recognized her father's handwriting immediately.
Her name was written across the front.
Claire.
Not Claire Bennett.
Just Claire.
Her father had always called her that when something was important.
She opened it with trembling fingers.
Inside was a single page.
If you are reading this, then the safeguards failed or someone forced you to look deeper than I wanted you to.
Claire stopped.
Daniel waited.
She continued.
There are three things I need you to understand. First, your fertility was never the problem. Second, Julian's family has been interested in your inheritance for longer than you know. Third, there is one person I trusted to protect the evidence if I was gone.
Claire looked up.
“Martin.”
Daniel nodded.
She read the next line.
His name is not what matters. What matters is what I left with him.
Claire's heart sank.
The letter continued.
I gave him the original succession file because I did not trust electronic records. If anyone alters the trust, the original file will prove the order of succession. It contains the documents I never showed you because I believed showing them too early would place you in greater danger.
There was no signature at the bottom.
Her father had never needed one.
Claire folded the paper.
“What was in the succession file?”
Daniel's phone rang.
The investigator answered it.
A minute later he looked at Claire.
“Martin is at his office.”
“Does he know we're coming?”
“We haven't told him.”
They left the building immediately.
Martin's office was only twenty minutes away.
The lights were on.
His car was outside.
But when police entered, he was gone.
His desk had been cleared.
The computer had been wiped.
The file cabinets were open.
On the floor lay a single sheet of paper.
Daniel picked it up.
It was a copy of Claire's father's original trust.
Only one paragraph had been highlighted.
If my daughter has a biological child, that child shall become the protected successor beneficiary of all assets designated herein.
Claire read it twice.
Then she noticed something written in the margin.
Not in her father's handwriting.
Find the original.
The investigator searched the office.
A locked cabinet contained travel records, old case files, and a photograph.
Claire picked up the photograph.
Her father stood beside Martin Ellis.
They were outside a fertility clinic.
The date was eight years earlier.
Claire's breath caught.
She had never known her father had been involved in her fertility treatment.
Daniel looked at the photograph.
“That's before you started treatment.”
Claire turned it over.
There was another handwritten sentence.
He knew before she did.
The meaning of the words hit her with brutal force.
Her father had known something about her fertility before she ever received the diagnosis.
He had known Julian's family was interested.
And he had prepared for a child who did not yet exist.
Then the investigator found Martin's travel file.
Three days earlier, Martin had purchased a one-way ticket.
Destination: Geneva.
Claire stared at the page.
“Where is the embryo?”
Daniel looked at the destination.
“I don't know.”
The investigator received another alert.
A vehicle registered to Martin had been captured on a highway camera.
The vehicle was heading toward the airport.
But Martin wasn't alone.
The passenger was Julian Bennett.
Claire closed her eyes.
For months, Julian had insisted he had been trapped by his family.
He had blamed Helga.
He had blamed fear.
He had blamed debt.
Now he was traveling with the one man who might possess the original evidence.
Claire opened her eyes.
“Get them.”
The investigator nodded.
But Daniel's phone rang again before they could move.
It was Sophie.
Her voice was weak.
“Claire?”
“Yes.”
“The baby is coming.”
Claire froze.
The doctor had said they might have more time.
Apparently they didn't.
Sophie began crying.
“Please come.”
Claire looked at Daniel.
Then at the photograph of her father.
Then at the road leading toward the airport.
Two parts of her life were collapsing at once.
The truth about her father was finally opening.
And the child at the center of the entire nightmare was about to enter the world.
Claire made her choice.
She went to Sophie.
But before she left, Daniel said something that stayed with her.
“Claire.”
She turned.
“If Martin and Julian are together, they're probably not running from us.”
“What are they running toward?”
Daniel looked at the photograph.
“The original file.”
Click here to continue reading: PART 18: THE FILE THAT COULD NOT BE DESTROYED
The Toast My Husband Made in German Exposed a Secret He Never Expected His Wife to Understand
Part 17 of 26
