Chapter 7 - THE PORT WHERE ERIC STOPPED PRETENDING
Pier Eleven was nearly empty at dusk.
Claire arrived carrying a satchel.
Nathaniel walked beside her, cane striking concrete in its familiar rhythm.
Tap.
Drag.
Tap.
Drag.
Eric stood near the loading bay.
He looked thinner than Claire remembered.
More desperate.
“Give me the ledger.”
Claire stopped fifteen feet away.
“You left your daughter with seven thousand dollars of medical debt.”
Eric’s mouth tightened.
“She isn’t my daughter.”
That sentence did more than any threat could have.
Whatever remained of Claire’s grief for their marriage disappeared.
“You signed the adoption paperwork.”
“I signed what you wanted.”
“You called her Dad’s little fighter.”
“Claire, stop.”
“No. You wanted me afraid of losing Lily because you knew she was the only thing I cared about more than myself.”
Eric looked toward Nathaniel.
“You always were dramatic.”
Nathaniel’s expression never changed.
“Who pays you?”
Eric laughed.
“You think I’m stupid?”
“Yes,” Nathaniel said.
Claire almost smiled.
Then a loading-bay door opened.
Pritchard stepped out.
Behind him came two men Claire had never seen.
Pritchard held the missing authorization page.
“Ledger,” he said.
Nathaniel tilted his head.
“You spent nineteen years in my house.”
Pritchard’s face hardened.
“Nineteen years watching you inherit everything.”
“Is that your explanation?”
“It’s my reason.”
Eric interrupted.
“Enough. Give us the book.”
Claire lifted the satchel.
“Who is S.W.?”
That changed the room.
Pritchard looked at Eric.
Eric looked away.
Nathaniel saw both reactions.
So did Claire.
“You don’t know,” she said to Eric.
“Shut up.”
“You’ve been risking prison for someone whose real name they never even told you.”
Eric stepped toward her.
“Claire.”
“You were never important to them.”
His face twisted.
For the first time, she saw terror instead of arrogance.
Then a black sedan rolled slowly into the far end of the pier.
Pritchard whispered:
“He wasn’t supposed to come himself.”
Nathaniel went completely still.
May you like
The rear door opened.
Sebastian Whitmore stepped out.
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