Chapter 7 - What Emily Did That Night
Emily did not deny it.
That frightened Adrian more than denial would have.
“Yes,” she said. “I carried Claire out.”
Noah stared at her.
“You told me someone was trying to kill her.”
“They were.”
“Who?”
Emily looked at Martin.
“Richard.”
Martin laughed.
“Convenient.”
Emily turned on him.
“You helped him.”
“After.”
Adrian stepped between them.
“Start at the beginning.”
Four years earlier, Emily had discovered the Dawson trust.
She also discovered Richard had forged documents preparing to declare Claire mentally incompetent once she inherited, allowing a family-controlled guardian to manage the fortune.
Emily planned to leave Adrian with Claire and go to federal investigators.
She did not tell Adrian because she feared Richard monitored him.
On the night Claire disappeared, Emily took her daughter through the back door.
Noah saw them.
“I begged you not to tell Adrian,” Emily said.
“You said you’d call in two hours.”
“I was followed.”
Denise, then a St. Catherine’s employee, offered shelter.
It was a trap.
Richard found them.
He took Claire.
Then he forced Emily into St. Catherine’s.
Noah confronted his father.
Richard threatened to implicate Noah in the kidnapping.
“You believed him?” Adrian asked.
“I was twenty-four.”
“You watched me search for my child.”
Noah’s eyes filled.
“I hated myself every day.”
Adrian walked away.
He could forgive fear in theory.
It was harder when fear had stolen four Christmases.
Martin offered another twist.
“Richard wasn’t protecting the trust for himself.”
“Then who?”
“He owed somebody.”
The Mercer-Dawson fund had been used to launder payments connected to a network of fraudulent treatment centers.
St. Catherine’s was one.
There were twelve others.
Richard was not the mastermind.
He was a partner.
“Who ran it?” Quinn asked.
Martin shook his head.
“I never met them.”
“But you know something.”
“A name.”
“What name?”
“North Star.”
Emily stiffened.
“That was on the invoices.”
Martin nodded.
North Star was not a company.
It was an internal designation.
People.
Judges, doctors, accountants, donors.
They manipulated guardianships, estates and medical declarations.
Families with vulnerable heirs were profitable.
Claire was one case among many.
Adrian looked around the hidden room.
His daughter’s toys suddenly felt like evidence from a machine.
Martin offered to testify.
Quinn arrested him anyway.
“You can negotiate from a cell.”
Back at the mansion, Adrian sat with Claire beneath the Christmas tree.
She had been told only what her therapist considered appropriate.
“Uncle Noah lied?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Is he bad?”
Adrian thought carefully.
“He did something wrong because he was scared.”
“Are scared people bad?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Complicated.”
Claire sighed.
“Grown-ups are exhausting.”
Adrian laughed.
“Yes.”
Noah entered slowly.
Claire looked at him.
He stopped.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For not helping sooner.”
Claire considered him.
“Did you know where I was?”
“No.”
“Did you look?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
Noah began crying.
Claire became uncomfortable.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Because I’m sorry.”
She handed him a tissue.
“Don’t get it on the couch.”
Adrian laughed despite himself.
That night, Emily could not sleep.
She walked through the mansion touching Christmas ornaments she remembered from before Claire disappeared.
Adrian found her.
“You should have trusted me.”
“I know.”
“I would have chosen you.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to say that like it fixes anything.”
“I know.”
He looked away.
“Stop saying that.”
She almost smiled.
Then her expression changed.
“What?”
“This ornament.”
A silver train hung from the tree.
Richard gave one to every Mercer grandchild.
Claire’s had disappeared with her.
Emily removed it.
Something rattled inside.
Adrian opened the base.
A memory card fell into his palm.
Security footage.
Dated the night Claire disappeared.
The camera showed Emily leaving with Claire.
Then Richard arriving.
Then another person stepping from Richard’s car.
A woman.
Rebecca.
Adrian stared at his wife’s younger face.
Rebecca had been involved from the beginning.
Before Adrian had ever married her.
Before Emily supposedly died.
Emily whispered, “She wasn’t protecting Claire.”
Adrian looked toward the guest room where Rebecca slept under police guard.
“No.”
The footage continued.
Rebecca turned toward the camera.
Then another figure emerged behind her.
A man wearing a North Star pin.
Adrian recognized him.
So did Emily.
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It was Detective Quinn’s former police captain.
The man currently supervising the investigation.
