Chapter 13 - Melissa Grant
Melissa Grant’s sister arrived two days later.
Her name was Naomi.
She was forty-two, a school librarian from Columbus.
Daniel offered to meet at Rebecca’s office.
Naomi refused.
“I want to see the grave.”
So they met at the cemetery.
Snow covered the grass.
The stone still read:
CLARA CARTER
Beloved Wife and Mother.
Naomi stood before it for a long time.
Nobody spoke.
Clara remained several feet away.
She felt like an intruder at her own grave.
Finally Naomi turned.
“You’re Clara?”
“Yes.”
Naomi studied her face.
“You’re alive.”
Clara nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Clara could not answer.
Naomi looked at the stone.
“My sister is under your name.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t do that.”
“No.”
“Then stop apologizing.”
The directness reminded Clara of Hannah.
Naomi knelt near the grave.
“Melissa disappeared before.”
Clara waited.
“Months at a time.”
Naomi brushed snow from the stone.
“She had addiction problems. Sometimes she called. Sometimes she didn’t.”
Daniel stood beside Leo several yards away.
Naomi continued.
“When police said she was probably living somewhere voluntarily, I believed them.”
Her voice broke.
“I stopped calling every week.”
Clara’s eyes filled.
“You couldn’t know.”
“That doesn’t stop guilt.”
Clara understood that better than she wanted.
Naomi stood.
“What happened to her?”
“We don’t know every detail.”
“Tell me what you know.”
Clara did.
She did not protect herself from the ugliness.
Melissa apparently died from an overdose.
Her unidentified body entered county custody.
Paul Brennan learned of the remains.
The body was removed improperly.
Placed at the warehouse.
Clara’s personal items were planted.
A fire obscured identification.
Dental records were manipulated.
Naomi’s face hardened with each sentence.
“They burned her body again?”
“Yes.”
“After she was already dead.”
“Yes.”
“To fake your death.”
“Yes.”
Naomi stared at the grave.
“My sister spent half her life feeling like people thought she didn’t matter.”
Clara had no response.
“And then after death, somebody used her because they thought nobody would come looking.”
Clara began crying.
“I’m so sorry.”
Naomi looked at her.
“This time you can apologize.”
Clara nodded.
“I am.”
Naomi’s anger did not disappear.
Nor should it.
But she took Clara’s hand.
“Help me put her name back.”
“I will.”
Daniel approached carefully.
Naomi looked at him.
“You’re the husband?”
“Yes.”
“You identified her.”
Daniel swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Did you really think she was Clara?”
“I thought I did.”
Naomi studied him.
“Did you see her face?”
“Partially.”
“How?”
Daniel explained the burns, the ring, the dental confirmation.
Richard standing beside him.
Naomi closed her eyes.
“I’m trying not to hate you.”
Daniel nodded.
“I understand.”
Clara looked sharply at Naomi, but Daniel lifted a hand.
“She’s allowed.”
Naomi’s eyes filled.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“I don’t think I hate you.”
Then she looked toward Leo.
“I think everybody in this story trusted someone they shouldn’t have.”
Daniel had no defense.
They arranged a proper reburial once the investigation released Melissa’s remains.
Carter Development would cover costs, though Naomi initially refused company money.
“Not hush money.”
“It isn’t,” Daniel said.
“Then put it in writing.”
Rebecca did.
Naomi also insisted on a public correction.
Melissa’s name restored.
Clara’s death certificate revoked.
The original case reopened.
No quiet settlement.
No family secrecy.
Daniel agreed.
Richard’s attorney did not.
A formal letter arrived that afternoon warning Daniel against making “defamatory public statements concerning unproven allegations against company officers.”
Daniel laughed when he read it.
Rebecca did not.
“Take it seriously.”
“He forged my signature.”
“Allegedly.”
“He paid Brennan.”
“Evidence suggests payments through related entities.”
Daniel sighed.
“Lawyers make language unbearable.”
“Language keeps facts separate from anger.”
He nodded.
That evening, Richard called.
Daniel answered for the first time since finding Clara.
“Danny.”
Richard’s childhood nickname.
Daniel felt nothing warm hearing it.
“We need to talk.”
“Yes.”
“In person.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at Clara across the room.
She shook her head once.
Not fear.
Choice.
He respected it.
“What do you want, Richard?”
“I heard you’re asking questions about old Rivergate accounts.”
“Who told you?”
Pause.
“People talk.”
“Kelly?”
Longer pause.
Richard recovered.
“Kelly hasn’t been in the office.”
“No.”
“Is she okay?”
“You tell me.”
Richard’s voice hardened.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel almost told him everything.
Clara alive.
Melissa identified.
Brennan’s payments.
The proxy.
Instead he remembered the advantage of information.
Then another thought stopped him.
He did not want to become a mirror of Richard.
“I know the proxy is forged.”
Silence.
Daniel continued.
“I know Green Charter paid Elaine Mercer.”
Nothing.
“And I know Paul Brennan received money through his brother-in-law.”
Richard breathed once into the phone.
“Daniel, you’re confused.”
“No.”
“Who is putting this in your head?”
Daniel looked at Clara.
“The truth.”
He ended the call.
Richard immediately called back.
Daniel declined.
Again.
Declined.
Then a text arrived.
You have no idea what Clara did before she died.
Daniel’s pulse quickened.
Clara read the message.
Her face changed.
“What?”
Daniel asked.
She sat.
“There is something I haven’t told you.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Another secret.
Clara whispered, “Richard didn’t invent every accusation against me.”
Daniel stared.
“What did you do?”
Clara looked toward Leo’s room.
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Then back at her husband.
“I moved company money.”
