Chapter 6 - BEFORE THE WEDDING
Daniel drove to Martin Bell’s office with Detective Chen sitting beside him.
Martin was seventy-six, careful, and visibly afraid.
He locked his office door after they entered.
Then he opened an old file.
Inside was a photograph of Margaret at twenty-nine.
She stood beside Daniel’s father outside a courthouse.
Daniel stared.
“They knew each other.”
“Very well.”
Martin explained that decades earlier, Margaret’s father and Daniel’s father had fought over a parcel of commercial land.
Margaret believed the Reeds had cheated her family.
The court disagreed.
Years later, Daniel’s father sold the property and placed part of the proceeds into trusts for his grandchildren.
“He thought it was the cleanest way to keep old resentment from touching the next generation,” Martin said.
“He was wrong.”
Daniel thought of Claire.
They had met at a fundraiser nine years earlier.
She had said it was chance.
Martin slid another page across the desk.
It was a guest list from that fundraiser.
Claire’s name had been added by Margaret forty-eight hours before the event.
Daniel felt cold.
“She put Claire there.”
“Yes.”
Detective Chen leaned forward.
“Do you have proof Claire knew why?”
Martin opened another envelope.
A copy of a letter Claire had mailed to Margaret three weeks before she met Daniel.
I’ll go.
But if he’s awful, I’m leaving after ten minutes.
Daniel exhaled.
That was not proof of a conspiracy.
Then he saw the bottom line.
If this is really about getting back what Grandpa lost, I need the whole story first.
Daniel shut his eyes.
Claire had known.
Maybe not everything.
But enough.
His phone rang.
It was Lily’s child advocate.
Daniel answered immediately.
“Is she okay?”
The woman’s voice was tight.
“Daniel, Lily just remembered where Claire keeps the key to the quiet room.”
Daniel stood.
“There’s more?”
May you like
“Yes.”
“And Lily says there’s another camera inside.”
