Chapter 10 - DR. LAWSON
Dr. Lawson denied giving Michael the medication.
Then his office nurse found the sign-out log.
Claire Reed.
She had collected it.
Reason:
Husband's sleep difficulty.
I had never requested it.
Claire sat in the interview room staring at the floor.
"I wasn't going to poison you."
"What were you going to do?"
"If you got upset, Michael said one pill would calm you."
"Without telling me?"
"Yes."
That was enough.
Intent did not become harmless because the dose was small.
Then Claire finally admitted the financial plan.
Michael contacted her eleven months earlier.
Not eight.
He told her he had become wealthy.
Said he regretted losing Sabrina.
Said I had turned Claire into a tailor's wife when she could have had a different life.
Claire had chosen me when I owned one sewing machine and a rented apartment.
Apparently regret had found her later.
Michael promised Portugal.
A house near the water.
No workshop smell.
No bills.
No aging husband.
"I felt like my life had already happened."
"So you stole mine."
Then she gave Cole her phone password.
Messages showed Michael directing the forged paperwork.
Claire executing it.
Jason moving money.
Sabrina signing some forms without reading but never seeing the full plan.
Then one message changed Sabrina's position.
Claire to Michael:
She thinks the C.S. account is for the honeymoon. Keep it that way until after the wedding.
Sabrina had been reckless.
Selfish.
Cruel to me.
But not a knowing partner in the full theft.
That distinction mattered.
Then Cole found another thread.
Michael to Claire:
After Harold is removed, Sabrina becomes useful only if Nathan's family money comes in.
Claire replied:
Leave her out of that.
For the first time, Claire had drawn a line.
Late.
Too late.
But real.
Michael wrote back:
You don't get to grow a conscience now.
She had believed she was escaping with him.
He had been using her from the beginning.
Then Miriam entered holding an old envelope.
"This came from the trust archive."
My brother David's handwriting.
FOR HAROLD IF CLAIRE EVER CHALLENGES THE TRUST.
May you like
David had been dead twelve years.
And somehow he had anticipated my wife.
