My Wife Told Everyone I Was ‘Just a Driver’ — Then I Found Out Her Secret Too.
Chapter 6
The old bakery became their temporary safe place.
Claire locked the doors.
Daniel replayed the recording.
His father’s message was only six minutes long.
But every sentence opened another question.
“Who killed him?” Daniel asked.
Claire shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve known for six years.”
“I knew someone was responsible.”
“That isn’t enough.”
She looked down.
“My father knew more than I did.”
“Richard?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Then why should I trust him?”
“Because if he wanted you dead, he’d never have helped create Blackwood.”
Daniel stared at the documents.
The trust was worth $12 million when created.
Today, it was worth nearly $31 million.
Interest.
Investments.
Hidden assets.
Money his father had left behind.
Daniel didn’t care.
“What did my father want me to do with it?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“He wanted you to stay away.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Until now.”
She nodded.
“Until someone started looking for the account.”
Daniel thought.
“Who knew about Blackwood?”
“My father.”
“Mark.”
“Your father.”
“Who else?”
She hesitated.
“Me.”
Then Daniel noticed something.
The original trust papers included a second beneficiary.
Claire Harrison.
He looked at her.
“You were named too.”
She nodded.
“I never touched the money.”
“Why?”
“Because it wasn’t mine.”
“Then why put your name on it?”
“Your father insisted.”
Daniel sat down.
His father had trusted Claire enough to put his son and the woman beside him into the same protection trust.
That meant something.
But Daniel still couldn’t forgive the deception.
He stood.
“We find Sophie.”
Claire nodded.
They called Mark.
He arrived an hour later.
“I’ve got bad news.”
Daniel looked at him.
“What?”
“Someone has accessed the company’s old security system.”
“Who?”
Mark showed them the footage.
Graham Pierce.
The current chief financial officer.
Daniel knew him.
He had always been one of the company’s most respected executives.
“He has access to everything,” Mark said.
Claire looked at the screen.
“Graham.”
“Why would he take Sophie?”
“Because he knows where Blackwood is.”
Daniel clenched his jaw.
“Then we’ll give him what he wants.”
Claire grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“He has my daughter.”
“And that’s what he wants you to use.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You said my father wanted me to stay away.”
“I know.”
“He’s dead.”
Silence.
Daniel’s voice broke.
“I’m not staying away anymore.”
They traced Graham’s phone.
An abandoned warehouse.
Daniel and Claire entered carefully.
Sophie was not there.
But they found a message.
A child’s drawing.
A house.
Three people.
Daniel recognized it.
Sophie had drawn it weeks earlier.
On the back was a room number.
Daniel remembered the hotel key.
The same key from the first photograph.
He looked at Claire.
“Room 1807.”
She nodded.
“I know that hotel.”
“Where?”
“My father owns it.”
Daniel stared.
“You’ve been there before?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
Claire whispered,
“The night your father died.”
