Relationship: Husband.
Her signature shook across the bottom.
I stared.
Then Marcus called again.
“I FOUND SOMETHING IN THE BANK TRANSFERS.”
“What?”
“The credentials belonged to Claire.”
“I know.”
“But the device didn’t.”
I stopped moving.
“What device?”
“Administrative tablet assigned to your residence.”
My pulse changed.
“Claire lived there.”
“Yes.”
“Then—”
Marcus interrupted.
“One transfer was made at 11:14 p.m. on March 12.”
“So?”
“The hotel photos supposedly show Claire nearly sixty miles away that same evening.”
I stared.
“She couldn’t have made the transfer and been at the hotel.”
“Correct.”
“Then the photos were fake?”
“Not exactly.”
Marcus sent an enlarged image.
The woman wore Claire’s camel coat.
Similar hair.
Face hidden.
Then he sent security footage from a gas station close to my neighborhood.
Claire’s car entered the neighborhood at 9:51 that night.
The hotel photograph had supposedly been taken minutes earlier—
almost sixty miles away.
Impossible.
Somebody wore her coat.
Somebody deliberately made sure I recognized clothing rather than a face.
I whispered:
“Vanessa.”
Marcus said nothing.
I already knew what that silence meant.
THEN CAME THE NECKLACE
Later that night, Marcus called again.
“The safe was opened at 1:07 a.m. the night before the necklace was discovered.”
“I was in Atlanta.”
“I know.”
“Claire?”
“Her access had already been restricted after your argument.”
My blood went cold.
“Whose code opened it?”
“Master override.”
Only a few people had one.
My security director.
Me.
And the temporary administrator I had personally approved.
Vanessa Cole.
I lowered my head.
For almost a year, every clue had pointed toward Claire because I had wanted it to.
Now every clue was turning around.
And pointing toward the woman wearing my engagement ring.
My phone buzzed.
Vanessa.
Miss you. Come home soon ❤️
I stared.
Then typed:
Busy night. Love you.
The words made me sick.
But Marcus had warned me.
“If Vanessa did this, don’t scare her yet.”
“Why?”
“Because frightened people destroy evidence.”
For once—
I listened.
MARCUS FOUND CLAIRE THE NEXT MORNING
She lived above a laundromat on the south side of Bellmere.
Technically, the apartment belonged to a sixty-three-year-old woman named Ruth.
Ruth volunteered at a church food pantry.
She let Claire stay for whatever she could afford.
