Chapter 15 - CLAIRE WAS NOT DEAD
Vanessa whispered, "No."
Secondary founder authority required an active biometric verification within the last ninety days.
Claire Bellmont had supposedly been dead seven years.
The world enjoys burying Bellmont women early.
Ethan traced the verification.
A Bellmont property in Lisbon.
Six weeks ago.
"My mother is alive?"
Nathan had said he did not kill her; Crane said she died in a stairwell. Both could have believed that.
Maybe someone else had used her identity.
Or maybe Claire had done what I did.
Survived.
We flew to Portugal two days later after investigators cleared my travel.
The Lisbon property had been sold years ago.
Now it was a private rehabilitation clinic.
The director knew the name Claire.
He would not discuss patients without authorization.
Vanessa showed the key.
I showed the medallion.
Claire had arrived seven years earlier under another name after a severe head injury.
No identification.
No memory for months.
A volunteer nurse recognized her from old Bellmont charity photos but honored her request for privacy when memory returned.
"Why didn't she contact us?" Vanessa asked.
The director handed her a letter.
Claire wrote it six weeks earlier.
Vanessa,
I learned what Nathan did after I helped Amelia escape.
I also learned Pike was watching you.
If I returned openly, he would use you to control me.
I chose distance.
It was not fair to you.
It was the only choice I could live with.
I activated my founder authority because Rachel told me the seven-year date was coming.
If Amelia is alive, give her the key.
If she is dead, stop your father from inheriting her silence.
"She knew you might be alive."
"So did Rachel."
"Everyone knew more than me."
"That is what secrecy does."
It makes children out of adults.
It calls ignorance protection.
The director said Claire had left the clinic five weeks ago.
Destination unknown.
Then he handed me one more envelope.
For Amelia.
Inside was a hotel key card.
Bellmont Cove.
Suite 1701.
My old private suite.
And one line in Claire's handwriting:
WE NEED TO FINISH WHAT WE STARTED.
May you like
Back at the resort, Suite 1701 had been sealed since my disappearance.
Claire turned from the window, older and alive, holding my mother's original founder book.
