Chapter 6 - THE SLAPClaire did not deny it.
That was the first surprise.
The second was that she laughed.
Not loudly.
Just one stunned breath of amusement.
“You think Luca did this?”
Nicholas watched her.
“Didn’t he?”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“You still don’t understand your own family.”
Hannah remained outside the study, recording through the secure audio device Walter had arranged with Nicholas’s consent.
Nicholas had insisted Claire speak freely.
“If you want my signature,” he said, “tell me the truth.”
Claire walked toward the window.
“When you had the accident, everything changed.”
“For me.”
“For everyone.”
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The part where my spine became an inconvenience to you.”
Claire spun around.
“You think I wanted this?”
Nicholas’s face became cold.
“I think you liked me better when standing beside me gave you power.”
“That’s unfair.”
“You stopped touching my chair because you were embarrassed.”
Claire flinched.
“You noticed.”
“I noticed everything.”
Her eyes filled.
Hannah wondered for one moment whether the tears were real.
Maybe they were.
Bad people could still feel pain.
That didn’t make them good.
Claire whispered, “You became impossible.”
“I became disabled.”
“You became angry.”
“I was angry before.”
“That was different.”
“Because I could stand?”
Claire looked away.
Nicholas lowered his voice.
“Who changed my medication?”
She said nothing.
“Claire.”
“I did.”
Hannah’s stomach dropped even though she already believed it.
Nicholas’s face barely moved.
“Why?”
“To keep you calm.”
“You mean confused.”
“I never meant to hurt you.”
“You put me in the hospital.”
“I followed instructions.”
“Whose?”
Silence.
“Luca’s?”
Claire hesitated.
Then whispered:
“No.”
Nicholas frowned.
Before Claire could say more, someone knocked.
A security guard announced caterers arriving early for the engagement party rehearsal.
Claire stepped back.
The moment shattered.
“I’m done talking.”
“You don’t leave until you tell me who gave you the medication.”
Claire’s anger returned.
“You don’t give orders anymore.”
Hannah’s eyes widened.
Nicholas’s expression became dangerously still.
Claire realized what she had said.
But instead of retreating, she continued.
“That’s the truth nobody tells you. You sit in this house pretending everybody is waiting for you to recover.”
She pointed toward the wheelchair.
“They aren’t.”
Nicholas’s hands tightened on the armrests.
“They’re waiting to see what’s left.”
“Get out.”
Claire leaned toward him.
“I stayed.”
“For cameras.”
“I stayed when half this city whispered that you were finished.”
“You stayed because my name opened doors.”
“You needed me.”
Nicholas looked at her.
“No.”
The word was quiet.
“You needed me to need you.”
Claire’s face twisted.
She grabbed the documents.
“Sign them.”
“No.”
“You have no idea what happens if you don’t.”
“Tell me.”
Claire shoved the pen toward him.
“Sign.”
Nicholas knocked it away.
Claire stared.
Then Nicholas made a mistake.
He tried to transfer himself.
Whether it was pride, anger, or a desperate need not to look helpless in front of her, Hannah never knew.
His right hand gripped the desk.
His left pushed against the wheelchair.
His legs failed.
Nicholas crashed onto the marble floor.
His wheelchair rolled sideways.
Hannah moved immediately.
But Claire reached him first.
For half a second Hannah thought she would help.
Instead, Claire stared down at him.
Disgust appeared across her face.
Nicholas saw it.
That was worse than pain.
“You pathetic—”
The slap cracked across the foyer.
Nicholas’s head turned.
Hannah froze.
Claire lifted her hand again.
Hannah crossed the distance before she understood she was moving.
She caught Claire’s wrist.
“Take your hand off me.”
“No.”
“You work for him.”
“Exactly.”
Hannah stepped between Claire and Nicholas.
“You will not touch him again.”
Everything from the opening of Nicholas’s nightmare had finally arrived at one moment.
Caterers stood frozen near the entrance.
A housekeeper stared from the staircase.
Two security guards rushed forward.
And Walter Bell stopped halfway across the foyer.
Nicholas lifted his head.
Blood marked the corner of his mouth.
But his eyes were clear.
Perfectly clear.
Claire saw them.
Her face changed.
“You…”
Nicholas wiped his mouth.
“You thought I was still confused.”
Claire stepped backward.
Hannah released her wrist only when security took position beside them.
Nicholas spoke.
“Walter.”
“Yes.”
“Play it.”
Claire went white.
Walter removed his phone.
Her own recorded voice filled the foyer.
I did.
I followed instructions.
Claire looked at Nicholas.
“You recorded me?”
“Yes.”
“You bastard.”
“Possibly.”
He glanced toward Hannah.
“But today that isn’t the important crime.”
Police arrived twenty minutes later.
Claire immediately changed her story.
She claimed Nicholas had manipulated her.
Claimed the medications were prescribed overseas.
Claimed Hannah had become obsessed with the family.
Claimed Walter wanted control.
Then she made the allegation that changed everything.
“Ask Luca who caused the accident.”
Detective Mara Jennings leaned forward.
“What do you mean?”
Claire looked at Nicholas.
“I didn’t know about the brakes.”
Nicholas’s expression hardened.
“But Luca did?”
Claire swallowed.
“I said ask him.”
Police attempted to contact Luca.
His phone was off.
His apartment was empty.
His driver had disappeared.
A private jet registered to one of his companies had filed a flight plan hours earlier.
But Luca had never boarded.
He was still somewhere near Chicago.
Claire was taken into custody for questioning.
Nicholas refused an ambulance until Hannah threatened to call one anyway.
At the hospital they found no new spinal damage.
His lip required two stitches.
His pride needed considerably more.
Hannah sat beside his bed.
“You never do that again.”
“Get slapped?”
“Try to stand without assistance.”
“I almost had it.”
“You absolutely did not.”
Nicholas smiled faintly.
Then his expression changed.
“She said Luca didn’t give her the pills.”
“I heard.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I believe frightened people sometimes tell pieces of truth.”
Nicholas stared at the ceiling.
“Then somebody else is still inside this.”
Hannah’s phone rang.
It was Ethan’s hospital.
Her heart instantly stopped.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A nurse spoke quickly.
Ethan was safe.
But someone had called the pediatric cardiology office that afternoon claiming to be Nicholas Valenti’s representative.
The caller had tried to cancel Ethan’s upcoming surgery.
Hannah stood.
“What?”
The request had been denied because the caller could not provide correct verification.
“Did they give a name?”
“No.”
Hannah’s hand trembled.
Nicholas watched her.
“What happened?”
She told him.
His entire expression changed.
“This stops now.”
Two hours later Walter arrived carrying documents from Valenti Logistics.
“We found Luca’s payments.”
Nicholas sat straighter.
“To whom?”
Walter placed the pages on the bed.
A consulting company.
A medical supply distributor.
A private vehicle-repair shop.
Hannah looked between them.
“What?”
Walter’s face had gone gray.
“The repair shop handled Nicholas’s SUV before the accident.”
Nicholas stared.
“That proves Luca.”
Walter shook his head.
“No.”
He turned another page.
“The company existed long before Luca controlled it.”
“How long?”
“Fourteen years.”
Nicholas frowned.
Walter looked at him.
“Nicholas…”
His voice broke.
“The same company serviced Rebecca’s car three days before she died.”
Nobody spoke.
For twelve years Nicholas had believed his sister died because of rain.
Now the room seemed to tilt beneath him.
Claire’s betrayal was no longer the beginning.
May you like
It was merely the newest chapter.
And whoever had started this had been hunting Valentis long before Hannah Reed ever entered the house.
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