Chapter 13 - Claire’s Desperate Gamble
While we were helping Mr. Henderson move back into his ancestral ranch house, my phone rang again. This time, it was an unknown local number. I swiped to answer, pressing the phone to my ear.
"Daniel? Please... you have to listen to me," a frantic, sobbing voice cried out. Claire.
I stopped in my tracks, my boots crunching on the gravel of Mr. Henderson’s driveway. "How did you get this number, Claire?"
"My lawyer gave it to me—well, my former lawyer, before he abandoned me," she sobbed hysterically. "Daniel, I’m stranded. All my credit cards are frozen, my apartment lease was canceled because Marcus’s company funds bounced, and the police are asking questions about my involvement in the guardianship fraud. If you don't sign an affidavit stating I was coerced by Marcus, the state prosecutor is going to charge me as an active co-conspirator. I’m facing ten years in prison!"
I listened to her desperate pleading with absolute detachment. There was no anger left in my chest—only the cold, clear realization of cause and effect.
"You didn't care about coercion when you were laughing on the porch, Claire," I said evenly. "You didn't care about legality when you watched my elderly parents get locked in a chicken coop and beaten with a walking cane."
"I was stupid! I was greedy! People make mistakes!" she screamed over the phone, her voice devolving into raw panic. "We were married! Don't you have any shred of decency left?"
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"My decency was spent protecting the people you tried to destroy," I replied quietly. "Talk to your public defender, Claire. Your day in court is coming, and unlike my parents, you won't have a safety net."
I hung up the phone, blocking her number permanently, and tossed the device back into my pocket as I walked back to help Mr. Henderson carry his final box across the threshold.
