Chapter 11 - Daniel’s Version of Love
Claire did not go alone.
She wore a wire.
Sheriff Ortiz waited two blocks away.
Daniel had chosen Sarah’s old cottage, an abandoned guesthouse on the north edge of the estate property.
When Claire entered, he stood by the fireplace holding an envelope.
“You brought police.”
Claire kept her expression neutral.
“What makes you think that?”
“You have your father’s habit of pretending courage means not being afraid.”
“That didn’t answer me.”
Daniel smiled sadly.
“You look like Sarah when you’re angry.”
Claire’s stomach turned.
“Never say that to me.”
He lowered his gaze.
“I deserve that.”
“Did you alter my father’s medication?”
“No.”
“Did you know it was altered?”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
Daniel looked at the envelope.
“Your father.”
Claire almost walked out.
“You told Ruth the same lie.”
“It isn’t a lie.”
“Then prove it.”
He held out the envelope.
Inside was a photocopy of a note in Sarah’s handwriting.
Michael,
If anything happens to me, look at Evelyn’s accounts.
Do not trust Daniel.
Claire stared.
Daniel whispered, “She thought I betrayed her.”
“You did.”
“Yes.”
“With Evelyn?”
“I gave Evelyn information. I believed I was helping Sarah negotiate.”
“You were helping yourself.”
“I loved her.”
“You keep using that word like it erases what you did.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“Your father never understood her.”
“My father kept her letters.”
Daniel stopped.
Claire saw shock.
“What letters?”
“The ones where she called your affair a mistake.”
Pain crossed his face.
Real pain.
Good, Claire thought.
Let it hurt.
She stepped closer.
“Dad knew she chose him.”
Daniel’s eyes became wet.
“No.”
“She was going to confess.”
“No.”
“She was staying.”
“You don’t know what happened between them.”
“I know she wrote it.”
Daniel turned away.
For a moment Claire saw not a mastermind but a seventy-year-old man who had spent fourteen years preserving a fantasy.
Then he straightened.
“Michael found the letters recently.”
“When?”
“Two months before he died.”
“And confronted you.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He humiliated me.”
“So you killed him?”
“No.”
“Did you change his pills?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Daniel turned.
“Grant.”
Claire studied him.
“Grant says you.”
“Of course he does.”
“You told him ‘the problem is over.’”
Daniel’s face changed.
“You’re recording this.”
Claire said nothing.
Daniel laughed.
“Of course.”
Then he moved quickly.
He ripped open her coat, found the transmitter clipped inside, and crushed it beneath his shoe.
Claire backed away.
Ortiz would have heard enough.
Daniel said, “You think police will save you from people with more money than the county?”
“You sound scared.”
“I am.”
“Of Evelyn?”
He nodded.
That surprised her.
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn has spent twenty years making sure other people commit the crimes she benefits from.”
Claire thought of Grant.
Of Daniel.
Of Michael’s compromise.
“Did she order my father killed?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she order my mother killed?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
Claire believed him.
“Then what are you afraid of?”
Daniel opened a locked cabinet.
Inside were file boxes.
Copies.
Contracts.
Bank records.
“Because Falcon Crest wasn’t built to take Vale Ridge.”
Claire stared.
“What was it built for?”
“To hide losses from Evelyn’s investment firm.”
He pulled out a ledger.
“Your mother discovered it.”
Claire looked at the pages.
Millions had been moved through related companies.
“Grant knew?”
“Not originally.”
“So you and Evelyn used him.”
“We all used him.”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“Michael did too.”
Claire shook her head.
“Dad protected the vineyard.”
“By putting Grant between himself and Evelyn.”
The pattern was bigger than Claire had imagined.
Parents manipulating children.
Lawyers manipulating lovers.
Money turning every relationship into leverage.
Daniel whispered, “Michael wanted to expose everything. Not just Northstar. Falcon Crest. Your mother’s discovery. My affair. All of it.”
“And you couldn’t allow that.”
“I couldn’t allow Sarah’s name to be destroyed.”
Claire stared in disbelief.
“She was dead.”
“Her memory wasn’t.”
“You are unbelievable.”
“I loved her.”
“No. You loved owning the version of her that made you feel important.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Footsteps sounded outside.
Ortiz.
Daniel heard them.
He closed the ledger.
Claire said, “Give me that.”
“No.”
He moved toward the back door.
Claire blocked him.
“For once in your life, choose the truth.”
Daniel looked at her.
Then he whispered, “Your father had the same eyes when he threatened me.”
The door burst open.
“Sheriff’s department!”
Daniel froze.
Ortiz entered with two deputies.
Daniel slowly raised his hands.
Then Claire’s phone rang.
It was the vineyard controller.
Claire answered.
“Marissa?”
Marissa was crying.
“Claire, they called the loan.”
“Falcon Crest?”
“No.”
Claire’s blood chilled.
“The operating bank.”
“How much?”
“Fourteen million.”
“Why?”
“They say our financial statements were fraudulent.”
Claire looked at Daniel.
He smiled faintly.
Marissa continued.
“And someone sent the bank Michael’s entire internal audit.”
Claire whispered, “Who?”
May you like
“Grant.”
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