I Told My Roommate My Date Rejected Me… Her Next Words Left Me Speechless
Chapter 6
Claire refused to believe her mother might be alive.
“I saw the body.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“What if—”
“No.”
She cut me off.
“I was there.”
We sat in the car outside the old house.
The documents were on the back seat.
Neither of us knew what to think.
Then Claire whispered,
“My mother disappeared three weeks before my father died.”
I looked at her.
“You said she died six years ago.”
“That’s what everyone told me.”
“Who?”
“Her doctor. Police. Family.”
“Did you see the death certificate?”
She hesitated.
“No.”
“What about the funeral?”
“There was a closed casket.”
Neither of us spoke.
I finally said,
“Maybe your father knew.”
She looked at the voice recorder.
“Maybe he did.”
We returned to the city.
I contacted a friend who worked in legal research.
He searched public records.
The death certificate existed.
But there was a discrepancy.
The hospital listed the patient as “Claire Morgan Sr.”
The funeral home record used another spelling.
The signature on the death certificate didn’t match the physician’s.
It had been forged.
Claire stared at the screen.
“My mother is alive.”
We spent the next three days tracing records.
A private investigator found an old payment made six years earlier.
A monthly transfer.
To a woman named Catherine Moore.
The age matched Claire’s mother.
The address belonged to a small coastal town.
We drove there.
Claire barely spoke the whole way.
When we arrived, we found a tiny bookstore.
A woman stood behind the counter.
Gray hair.
Blue sweater.
She turned.
Claire stopped breathing.
“Mom?”
The woman dropped the book in her hand.
“Claire.”
They stared at each other.
Then Claire ran toward her.
I stepped outside.
Some reunions aren’t meant to have an audience.
Twenty minutes later, Claire came to me.
Her eyes were swollen.
“She left to protect me.”
“From Ryan’s family?”
“From everyone.”
Her mother had learned that Thomas had been investigating a money-laundering network.
Ryan’s father had threatened the family.
After Thomas died, Claire’s mother disappeared to keep Claire safe.
“She didn’t know I was still searching.”
“What about the files?”
“She knew.”
“What did she say?”
Claire looked at me.
“She said my father never trusted Ryan’s family.”
“That makes sense.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“She said my father didn’t trust someone else.”
“Who?”
“My mother’s former partner.”
Olivia Grant.
The same woman from the photograph.
Claire’s mother finally told us the truth.
Olivia had started the original financial network.
It was supposed to hide emergency assets during a corporate takeover.
Then she expanded it.
Millions disappeared.
Thomas discovered everything.
He was going to expose her.
Ryan’s father knew.
But he wasn’t the mastermind.
Olivia was.
“And Ryan?” I asked.
Claire’s mother looked at us.
“He knows.”
“Does he work for her?”
She nodded.
“He has for years.”
Claire’s face tightened.
“Then why did he come after me?”
Her mother lowered her eyes.
“Because he believes you have the original ledger.”
Claire looked at me.
“The blue box.”
Her mother nodded.
“Your father trusted you to keep it safe.”
Claire looked at the files.
“But we found it.”
“No.”
Her mother stood.
“You found copies.”
She pointed to the recorder.
“The original ledger was hidden somewhere else.”
“Where?”
Her mother looked at me.
Then at Claire.
“With the person your father trusted most.”
Claire frowned.
“Who?”
Her mother answered quietly.
“Your roommate.”
I froze.
Claire stared at me.
“What?”
Her mother’s expression was serious.
“Before your father died, he sent the original ledger to someone named Daniel Hayes.”
I felt the air leave my lungs.
That was me.
My name.
My father.
My home.
My life.
I looked at Claire.
She whispered,
“You knew?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
And suddenly, I realized something terrifying.
I had been living with Claire for two years.
And neither of us had known that our families had been connected long before we ever met.
