Chapter 15 - MY SIGNATURE
My electronic signature had been compromised months earlier.
Grant had access through a board-document platform I used on business trips.
Claire had my passwords.
Together, they could make me authorize almost anything.
The twelve million dollars had moved through three accounts before disappearing into a private holding company.
But Grant made one mistake.
He moved too fast.
Federal agents froze the final account before the money left the country.
That should have felt like a win.
It didn’t.
Lily still woke from nightmares crying for me.
Maria still checked every locked door twice.
And Claire was still missing.
At 2:00 a.m., my phone rang.
Claire.
This time, she was crying.
“Daniel, Grant is going to kill me.”
I said nothing.
“I know I don’t deserve your help.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I can give you everything.”
“You hurt Lily.”
“I know.”
The words came out broken.
“I hated her because every time you looked at her, I saw Emma. I knew I would always be second to a dead woman.”
I closed my eyes.
“And that made hurting a three-year-old acceptable?”
“No.”
For once, she didn’t defend herself.
Then her voice dropped.
“Grant kept the original brake-service records from Emma’s car. He kept them as insurance against your father.”
“Where?”
“In a storage unit in Charlestown.”
A crash sounded in the background.
Claire gasped.
“Daniel—”
The line went quiet.
Then Grant’s voice came through.
“Still trying to save everybody?”
“Where is she?”
He laughed.
“You should worry about the person who’s actually loyal to you.”
My stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“Maria just left the safe house.”
The call ended.
I called Detective Ortiz.
May you like
She answered on the first ring.
“Daniel,” she said, “Maria is gone.”
