Chapter 4: What Victor Came Back For
Clara woke at eleven that night.
The room was dim.
A single lamp on the far side of the nightstand.
Daniel was seated in the chair beside her, still in his travel clothes, his jacket folded across his knee.
He hadn't changed.
He hadn't left.
"Noah?" she said first.
"Right here." He turned the bassinet slightly so she could see without sitting up.
Noah was sleeping, one small fist pressed against his cheek.
Clara exhaled.
Then she looked at Daniel's face and something in her own face shifted.
"How much do you know?"
"Enough.
I want to hear it from you."
She was quiet for a moment.
Her voice, when it came, was careful.
"She told me you'd asked her to oversee things.
I believed her.
You were in Zurich, the time difference was difficult, I didn't want to bother you with—"
"You should have called me."
"I know." She looked at the ceiling.
"She made it feel like calling you would be failing.
Like I was proving I couldn't handle your family.
Your life." A pause.
"She's very good at that."
"Did she ever touch you?"
"No.
Nothing like that." Clara turned her head toward him.
"She didn't need to.
She just — arranged things.
The meals.
The schedule.
The staff.
Every time I tried to push back, she'd say something like, 'Daniel trusts me to manage this.' Or, 'I've been running this household since before you were born, Clara.' And I was exhausted and in pain and I didn't—" Her voice broke for the first time.
"I didn't want to be the woman who couldn't cope."
Daniel reached over and took her hand.
"The document," she said.
"Did you find it?"
"Yes."
"I didn't sign that."
"I know."
"She put it in front of me the morning of the delivery.
I was having contractions.
She said it was a standard hospital form.
A next-of-kin arrangement in case I wasn't conscious during the birth." Clara's grip on his hand tightened.
"I signed what I thought was a hospital intake form.
I was in labor, Daniel.
I couldn't read the full—"
"You don't have to explain yourself to me."
"I need you to understand that I didn't—"
"Clara." He leaned forward.
"I know."
She pressed her lips together.
Nodded once.
"Victor came back early," Daniel said.
"Two days before I did.
Do you know why?"
Clara was quiet for a long moment.
"He came to the house the day before you arrived.
He and Evelyn were in the study for over an hour.
I heard them arguing.
I couldn't make out the words, but—" She hesitated.
"At one point I heard her say your father's name."
Daniel went still.
"My father has been gone for four years."
"I know."
"What else?"
"That's all I heard.
The door was thick." Clara looked at him.
"But Marissa might know more.
She was cleaning the hallway outside the study.
She wouldn't have been able to avoid hearing."
Daniel stood.
He squeezed Clara's hand once before releasing it.
"Rest.
I'm not leaving the house tonight."
"Daniel." Her voice stopped him at the door.
"Whatever is in that document — whatever they were planning — I think it was about more than Noah."
He turned.
"I think it was about you," she said.
"About making you do something.
I don't know what.
But the way Evelyn looked at that bassinet—" Clara shook her head.
"She wasn't looking at him like a grandmother.
She was looking at him like a bargaining chip."
Daniel said nothing for a moment.
Then he walked back to the nightstand, picked up the folded document, and took it with him.
He found Marissa in the kitchen.
She was sitting at the small staff table with a cup of tea she hadn't touched, still in her uniform, waiting.
She looked up when he came in.
"I thought you'd come," she said.
"What did you hear?"
Marissa wrapped both hands around the cup.
"Victor told her it was too late to use the document.
That you were already on your way back and if you found it in that state, it would look exactly like what it was." She paused.
"Evelyn said it didn't matter.
She said once the guardianship was filed, the process would take months to reverse.
That by the time your lawyers caught up, she would already have what she needed."
"What did she need?"
Marissa looked up at him.
"She said — and these are her exact words, Mr.
Carter — 'Once I have the boy, Daniel will sign anything.'"
The kitchen was very quiet.
"There's something else," Marissa said.
She reached into her apron pocket and placed a small folded envelope on the table.
"Victor dropped this in the hallway when your bodyguard stopped him.
I picked it up.
I didn't open it.
But I could feel what's inside."
Daniel picked up the envelope.
It was slim.
Stiff.
May you like
The shape of a USB drive.
On the outside, in Victor's handwriting, were two words: *For Evelyn.*
