Chapter 6 - The Letter Claire Left BehindThomas Avery’s office occupied the top floor of an old brick building overlooking the James River.
He greeted Ethan and Sarah personally.
He looked tired.
“I should have called you earlier.”
Ethan sat down.
“Yes.”
Avery accepted the criticism.
“Claire asked me not to.”
“She’s been dead almost a year.”
“I know.”
Sarah remained beside Ethan.
Avery opened a locked drawer.
Inside was a cream envelope.
Claire’s handwriting was across the front.
FOR ETHAN — ONLY IF NECESSARY.
Ethan stared at it.
“When did she give you that?”
“July second.”
Two weeks before Leo’s birth.
“What does necessary mean?”
“She told me that if anything unusual happened involving Leo, I should give it to you.”
Ethan looked shaken.
“Why didn’t you give it to me when she died?”
“Her death was medically explained. Nothing suggested—”
“I lost her.”
“I know.”
Avery lowered his voice.
“But Claire specifically said this letter was about a woman she believed was trying to enter your life.”
Sarah’s pulse quickened.
Ethan opened the envelope.
The letter was short.
Ethan,
I may be wrong. I hope I am.
A woman named Victoria Hale contacted me three months ago pretending to represent a foundation interested in funding the maternal-health program I support.
At first, nothing seemed strange.
Then she began asking personal questions.
About you.
Your mother’s estate.
Our relationship.
And later, Leo.
I stopped answering.
She contacted me again under a different organization’s name.
I checked.
The organization did not exist.
Please do not confront anyone unless there is a reason.
I may simply be frightened because I am close to giving birth.
But if this woman ever appears in your life, do not assume the meeting was accidental.
Protect Leo.
Claire
Ethan read the letter twice.
Then a third time.
Sarah watched grief mix with fury across his face.
“She knew Victoria.”
Avery nodded.
“Indirectly.”
“And Victoria told me she had never heard Claire’s name before meeting me.”
Sarah remembered the first dinner Victoria attended.
She had asked polite questions about Claire.
How had they met?
What had she been like?
How long had Ethan grieved?
Sarah had thought the questions were awkward.
Now they felt calculated.
Ethan stood and walked to the window.
“Why would she target Claire?”
Avery took out another document.
“Claire believed the questions were financial.”
He pushed the paper across the desk.
It was a printed email.
Victoria, using the name Vanessa Hall, asked Claire:
Would Ethan’s child eventually become principal beneficiary of the Cole Family Trust?
Sarah felt anger rise.
“That isn’t normal charity research.”
“No,” Avery said.
Ethan turned.
“Did Claire tell police?”
“No crime had been committed.”
“Did she tell anyone else?”
“She said she told Sarah part of it.”
Sarah looked surprised.
“I don’t remember.”
Avery opened a handwritten note.
“Claire said: ‘Sarah knows where I put the blue book.’”
Sarah stared.
“The blue book?”
“You know what that means?”
“No.”
Ethan looked at her.
Sarah searched her memory.
Claire loved notebooks.
Yellow for household planning.
Black for medical appointments.
Green for pregnancy notes.
Blue...
Then Sarah remembered.
“The recipe book.”
Avery frowned.
Sarah stood.
“She had an old blue notebook in the kitchen. She pretended it was recipes because Victoria—”
She stopped.
Ethan looked at her sharply.
“Because Victoria what?”
Sarah’s memory returned in fragments.
A woman had visited the house shortly before Leo’s birth.
Sarah had not met her properly.
Claire introduced her only as someone from a charity committee.
The woman remained in the drawing room.
Sarah had seen only the back of her dark coat and her long auburn hair.
Victoria’s hair.
“Oh my God.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
“You saw her?”
“I may have.”
Sarah felt guilty for not remembering sooner.
“Claire came into the kitchen afterward. She looked nervous. She put something inside a blue notebook.”
“Where is it?”
Sarah thought.
“After Claire died, most of her things went into storage.”
Ethan grabbed his phone.
The Cole family storage facility was ten minutes away.
Avery stood.
“Ethan.”
“What?”
“Be careful.”
Ethan looked toward the letter.
“Victoria came near my family before Claire died.”
“Yes.”
“Then she lied her way into my life.”
“Yes.”
“And yesterday she stood over my son.”
Avery’s voice remained steady.
“That still doesn’t tell us why.”
Ethan picked up the letter.
“No.”
“But the blue book might.”
They drove directly to storage.
The facility manager unlocked the private unit.
Claire’s belongings filled labeled boxes.
Books.
Winter clothing.
Photographs.
Baby gifts she never had the chance to use.
Ethan stopped when he saw a box marked CLAIRE — KITCHEN.
Sarah opened it.
Cookbooks.
Tea tins.
A ceramic sugar bowl.
Then, beneath a folded apron:
A blue notebook.
Ethan stared.
Sarah handed it to him.
The first ten pages contained recipes.
Claire’s handwriting.
Soup.
Bread.
Lemon cake.
Then the handwriting stopped.
Halfway through the notebook, several pages had been glued together.
Ethan carefully separated the edge of one.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
A photograph fell onto the floor.
Sarah picked it up.
Claire stood outside a coffee shop.
Across from her was Victoria.
Not someone who resembled her.
Victoria.
On the back, Claire had written:
She lied about who she was.
Beneath the photograph was another note.
If she comes near Ethan, find out who sent her.
Ethan read it aloud.
Sarah looked at him.
“Sent her?”
That changed everything.
Until now they had assumed Victoria acted alone.
Claire’s note suggested something larger.
Someone had sent Victoria toward Ethan.
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Someone wanted access to the Cole family.
And Victoria might only be one piece of a plan that had begun before Leo was even born.
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