Chapter 1 - THE HOUSE SHE THOUGHT WAS HERS
For several seconds after Richard Whitaker spoke, nobody moved.
Claudia remained on the marble floor beside the shattered wineglass, one hand pressed against her cheek.
Mark stared at his father as if the old man had suddenly become someone he no longer recognized.
Ethan only trembled harder.
Richard tightened his overcoat around the three-year-old boy.
“You heard me.”
Claudia slowly pushed herself upright.
“You hit me.”
Richard's jaw tightened.
“And I will answer for that.”
He looked down at Ethan's bare feet.
“But first, you are going to answer for this.”
Mark stepped forward.
“Dad, don't make this bigger than it is.”
Richard turned.
That sentence hurt more than anything Claudia could have said.
Nine hours.
His grandson had been left outside for nine hours in forty-degree weather, and Mark was worried about things becoming inconvenient.
Richard reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“What are you doing?”
Mark's voice cracked.
“Calling an ambulance.”
Claudia's face changed.
“He doesn't need an ambulance.”
Richard dialed anyway.
Then he made a second call.
This one was to his attorney.
“Arthur.”
Richard kept his eyes on Claudia.
“I need you at the Hawthorne property tonight.”
Claudia laughed bitterly.
“The Hawthorne property?”
Richard's expression did not move.
“The house you have been calling yours for the past eighteen months.”
She folded her arms.
“My name is on the household accounts.”
“Accounts are not deeds.”
Mark went pale.
“Dad.”
Richard looked at him.
“You never told her?”
Claudia turned toward her husband.
“Never told me what?”
Richard looked around the foyer.
The grand staircase.
The crystal chandelier.
The antique clock beside the library doors.
Every inch of the mansion had been purchased by Whitaker money.
But that was not the secret.
The secret was what Richard had done with it three years earlier.
He looked back at Claudia.
“You've been living in a house owned by the Ethan Whitaker Protection Trust.”
Claudia's face went completely still.
Richard lowered his voice.
“And I am the trustee.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
For the first time that night, Claudia looked afraid.
Then Ethan lifted his head from Richard's shoulder.
“Grandpa?”
Richard looked down.
The little boy's lips trembled.
“She put Mommy's things in the blue room.”
Richard froze.
Mark's face drained of color.
Claudia whispered.
“Ethan, stop talking.”
Richard slowly raised his eyes.
“What blue room?”
May you like
Nobody answered.
And that was the moment Richard realized the cold backyard was only the beginning.
