Chapter 7 - The Safe Had Been Opened After Claire Left
Claire did not return home.
Sloane arranged for her to enter the property the next afternoon while Mason was elsewhere.
Tessa came with her.
Nothing looked dramatically different.
The broken bowls had been cleaned up.
The metal pot sat in the sink.
The ottoman had been returned to its usual place.
That normality made Claire angrier.
She went straight to the home office.
The wall safe was behind a framed architectural photograph.
It contained passports, insurance documents, property records, jewelry, and copies of important contracts.
Claire entered the code.
The safe opened.
At first nothing seemed missing.
Then she found the empty folder.
It was labeled:
Ashford Residence — Original Financing.
Claire remembered putting the original deed and mortgage paperwork there after they bought the house.
“Someone took it.”
Tessa looked toward the hallway.
“Does Mason know the code?”
“Yes.”
“Mom?”
“Not from me.”
Claire called Mason.
“Who opened the safe last night?”
He did not pretend to misunderstand.
“Claire—”
“Who?”
“I did.”
Her stomach dropped.
“After I left?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I had to get something.”
“The financing documents?”
“Yes.”
“For your mother?”
Silence.
“Mason.”
“Yes.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Tessa swore under her breath.
“Why did she need them?”
“I can’t explain over the phone.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because every time I tell you one piece, it makes everything look worse before I can explain the next.”
“That is what happens when the next piece is worse.”
Mason sounded exhausted.
“Claire, I never wanted to hurt you.”
“You terrorized me out of my own house.”
“I know.”
“You removed documents.”
“I know.”
“And somebody called you the second I left.”
Mason stopped breathing for a beat.
Claire heard it.
“You didn’t know I knew that.”
“How?”
“The camera.”
He said nothing.
Claire continued.
“You looked at it right after the call.”
Another silence.
Then Mason whispered:
“They were watching.”
Not she.
They.
Claire tightened her grip on the phone.
“Who is ‘they’?”
Mason did not answer.
But Tessa’s face had already changed.
May you like
She knew something.
And for the first time, Claire realized Lenora might not be the only person inside the Ashford family who needed those papers gone.
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