The Story Claire Had Been Told
Chapter 02 - The Story Claire Had Been Told
Claire had been nine years old when her mother died.
For nineteen years, she believed the same story.
A faulty electrical wire.
A late-night fire.
Her mother trapped upstairs.
Claire had been staying with her aunt Patricia that weekend.
Her father, William Bennett, survived because he was supposedly away on a business trip.
After the funeral, William became Claire's entire world.
He never remarried.
He paid for her college.
Walked her down the aisle when she married Sophie's father.
Stayed beside her through the divorce.
Whenever Claire asked about Margaret, William became quiet.
"It hurts too much."
Claire had learned not to ask.
Now she stood inside a jewelry store holding a certificate that suggested her mother had been planning to leave.
Daniel closed the jewelry box.
"Claire, maybe we should sit down."
"No."
She looked at Eleanor.
"I want to know everything."
Eleanor hesitated.
"Your mother came alone."
"Did she tell you why she was leaving?"
"Not exactly."
Eleanor looked toward Sophie.
Claire understood.
She asked Daniel to take Sophie to the café next door.
Sophie resisted.
"Mommy?"
Claire kissed her forehead.
"I'm right here."
After they left, Eleanor led Claire into a private office.
She opened an old filing cabinet.
Harrington Jewelers had kept records for nearly fifty years.
After several minutes, Eleanor found a thin folder.
Inside was a handwritten service receipt.
Margaret Bennett.
The date was three days before the fire.
Claire touched her mother's signature.
"She brought the necklace here?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you buy it?"
"She changed her mind."
Eleanor remembered Margaret crying.
Margaret had initially asked what the necklace was worth.
Then she asked whether Eleanor knew a place where a woman could stay without her husband finding her.
Claire felt cold.
"My father hurt her?"
"I never saw him hurt her."
Eleanor chose her words carefully.
"But your mother was afraid."
Claire stared at the receipt.
Then she noticed something written on the back.
A phone number.
And one sentence.
Call Rebecca if anything happens to me.
"Who's Rebecca?"
Eleanor shook her head.
"I don't know."
Claire photographed the note.
Her phone rang almost immediately afterward.
Her father's name appeared on the screen.
Claire answered.
"Dad?"
William's voice sounded normal.
Warm.
Familiar.
"Sweetheart, Daniel just called me."
Claire looked through the office window at the necklace.
"He said you found something."
Claire became very still.
She had not told Daniel to call her father.
"What exactly did he tell you?"
There was a pause.
Then William asked:
May you like
"Claire, where are you?"
For the first time in her life, Claire was afraid to answer him.
