Chapter 2 - The Account in the Baby’s Name
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Claire stared at Aaron.
“That is impossible.”
“We thought so too,” he replied.
Her pregnancy was only twelve weeks along. She and Ethan had told no one except her obstetrician and Claire’s closest friend.
She had carried the sonogram into the house believing she was sharing a secret.
Someone in that room had already known.
Diane’s gaze dropped toward Claire’s stomach.
The movement was quick, but Claire noticed it.
“When was the account opened?” Claire asked.
“Eight days ago.”
Aaron removed another document from the folder.
The account had been created under the name Baby Brooks, with Claire listed as the mother and Richard listed as temporary financial custodian.
The application included Claire’s date of birth, Social Security number, medical provider, estimated delivery date, and a scanned copy of her driver’s license.
Ethan crossed the room.
“How did anyone get the due date?”
Diane answered too quickly.
“Perhaps Claire mentioned it.”
“I did not,” Claire said.
Sloane looked between their parents.
“Mom, did you know she was pregnant?”
Diane’s mouth tightened.
“This is becoming unnecessarily dramatic.”
“You knew,” Claire said.
“I suspected.”
“How?”
Her mother remained silent.
Claire thought back through the previous month.
Diane had called twice asking whether Claire was feeling tired. She had asked why Claire had declined wine at a charity luncheon. At the time, Claire had mistaken the questions for rare maternal concern.
Now they felt like an investigation.
Richard slid his phone into his pocket.
The officer at the doorway noticed.
“Mr. Holloway, please place the phone on the table.”
“This is my home.”
“And the bank has reported suspected identity theft involving several devices registered to you.”
Richard did not move.
Ethan stepped closer to Claire.
She could feel the controlled anger in him. He wanted to confront Richard, but he understood that every word mattered now.
Claire had spent her childhood watching her father dominate rooms by becoming louder than everyone else.
She would not give him that advantage.
She lowered herself into the chair across from him.
“Sit down, Dad.”
Richard stared at her.
It was the first direct command she had ever given him.
Perhaps that was why he obeyed.
Aaron explained that the baby’s account had not yet received money, but it had been named as the future owner of a newly created trust. The trust would become active when Claire gave birth.
Its management documents named Richard and Diane as joint administrators.
Claire looked at her mother.
“You planned to control money belonging to my child.”
Diane’s voice remained cool.
“We planned to help.”
“You forged my signature to help?”
“No one forged anything.”
Aaron opened the next page.
The signature looked nearly perfect.
Claire would have believed it was hers if she had not known she had never seen the form.
The application also contained an electronic consent recording.
Aaron placed a small speaker on the table and pressed play.
A woman’s voice said, “I, Claire Brooks, authorize the creation of the custodial trust.”
The voice was soft and careful.
It sounded like Claire.
But not exactly.
Ethan leaned toward the speaker.
“That is edited.”
Aaron nodded.
“Our audio specialist believes it was constructed from several recordings.”
Claire looked toward Diane.
Her mother had called almost every evening for the last two months, asking repetitive questions and encouraging Claire to repeat dates, account numbers, and formal phrases.
Claire had believed Diane was finally trying to understand her work.
Instead, she had been collecting her voice.
Sloane pushed her chair away from the table.
“I did not know about any of this.”
Richard turned on her.
“Do not start performing innocence now.”
Sloane’s face changed.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You accepted the house.”
“You told me it was an advance from the family partnership.”
“You did not ask questions because you liked the answer.”
Sloane looked at Claire.
For once, there was no smugness in her expression.
Only fear.
The officer collected Richard’s phone and placed it inside an evidence bag.
Diane stood abruptly.
“This dinner is over.”
“No,” Claire said. “It is finally beginning.”
She opened the bank statement and read the smaller transfers aloud.
Forty eight thousand dollars to Holloway Consulting.
Seventy two thousand to a private lender.
Ninety thousand to a medical services company.
Twenty five thousand to an account identified only by the initials R.H.
The final payment had been made two days after Claire’s grandmother died.
Richard’s hand tightened around the edge of the table.
Claire saw it.
“Who received that payment?”
Aaron looked through the report.
“The bank traced it to a former nurse named Rebecca Hall.”
Claire remembered the name.
Rebecca had been the night nurse at Ruth Holloway’s assisted living residence.
She had disappeared before Claire could ask why her grandmother’s condition had deteriorated so quickly.
Claire’s voice became quiet.
“Why were you paying Grandma’s nurse?”
Richard looked at Diane.
Diane looked toward the hallway.
Then the sound of breaking glass came from Richard’s study.
May you like
Someone else was inside the house.
Continue to the next part: A hidden intruder searches Richard’s office while Claire begins to suspect that the stolen inheritance is connected to her grandmother’s death.
