Chapter 16
“Where is the file now?”
“Hidden.”
“Where?”
“I will tell you when I know I can trust the person carrying it.”
Claire almost laughed.
“You called me because you believed you could trust me.”
“I called you because you are the person named in the document.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No,” Margaret said. “It isn’t.”
The line went silent.
Before Claire could respond, Margaret added, “Go to Lake Briar tomorrow. Take your sister and your attorney. Do not enter the house until you understand what room seventeen is.”
The call ended.
Claire stood with the phone against her ear.
Emily crossed the room. “What happened?”
“Margaret has the original file.”
“And a missing page.”
“She wants us to go to Lake Briar.”
“Of course she does.”
Claire looked at the brass key on the table.
“The key opens a room, not a door.”
Emily glanced toward the window. “We should tell Daniel everything.”
“We will.”
“And then we should probably tell the police someone may be watching the apartment.”
Claire nodded, but her attention had shifted to the recipe book.
She picked it up and examined the back cover again. The note from Sophia had been hidden beneath the lining, but there was still something unusual about the paperboard. A faint line ran along the spine, too straight to be part of the original binding.
Claire fetched a letter opener from the kitchen drawer and gently slid it beneath the loosened cloth.
The cover lifted.
Inside was a shallow compartment, no larger than a matchbox.
Claire drew out a folded sheet.
The paper was old, yellowed at the edges, and marked with the seal of the Moretti family trust.
Emily moved beside her.
“Is that the missing page?”
Claire unfolded it.
At the top, in formal type, were the words:
Conditional Transfer Agreement
Below them, a paragraph had been underlined in blue ink.
Claire read it once.
Then again, because the meaning seemed impossible.
In the event that Claire Bennett Moretti becomes aware of the Lake Briar archive through any source other than Adrian Moretti, ownership shall remain vested in her, provided she refuses to return to the Moretti household or resume the marital arrangement under which the transfer was concealed.
Claire’s breath caught.
The condition was not about protecting the archive from her.
It was about protecting her from Adrian.
At the bottom of the page were three signatures.