Chapter 6 - THE LOCKED LIBRARY
Emma backed away.
Claire placed the ceramic bird on a table.
Nathan’s voice came faintly through Emma’s phone.
“Emma?”
Claire looked at it.
“Give me the phone.”
Emma tightened her grip.
“No.”
Claire lifted the fireplace poker.
“Give me the phone.”
Nathan heard every word.
“Claire!”
Emma had never heard him shout like that.
Claire smiled.
“He sounds worried.”
Emma kept moving backward.
“You pushed Arthur.”
Claire’s smile vanished.
“That old fool lost his balance.”
“He told Nathan.”
For the first time, fear moved across Claire’s face.
Emma saw it.
And realized immediately she should not have revealed that.
Claire stepped forward.
“How much did he tell him?”
“Enough.”
“Emma.”
“Enough to end your wedding.”
Claire’s breathing changed.
The woman standing before Emma no longer resembled the elegant hostess who smiled for photographers.
Her hair was loose.
Her face pale.
Her hands trembled around the poker.
“I need that drive.”
“You already destroyed the safe.”
“So there was a copy.”
Emma said nothing.
Claire looked toward the ceramic bird.
Understanding arrived.
“You hid it in that.”
“Dolores did.”
“Where’s the drive?”
“Not here.”
Claire’s eyes sharpened.
“You’re lying.”
“Nathan has it.”
Claire lowered the poker slightly.
Then she laughed.
A broken sound.
“You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“You forged his signature.”
“You think this is about signatures?”
“You planted evidence on me.”
“I was trying to make you leave.”
“You hit me.”
“You wouldn’t leave.”
Emma stared at her.
“You sound like every abusive person I ever met.”
Claire flinched.
“Don’t lecture me about survival.”
“Survival?”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“You think I wanted this?”
Emma almost laughed.
“Yes.”
“My family is drowning.”
“So you steal from Nathan?”
“My father died leaving debt nobody knew existed. My mother has nothing. My brother borrowed money from men who don’t care whether we live or die.”
Emma’s voice hardened.
“And Nathan was supposed to pay for all of it without knowing.”
“He has more money than ten generations could spend.”
“It is still his.”
Claire looked genuinely confused by that.
Then her face changed.
“You love him.”
Emma recoiled.
“No.”
“You do.”
“I barely know him.”
“You think I haven’t watched you?”
“There is nothing to watch.”
“He listens to you.”
“That isn’t love.”
“He stopped listening to me months ago.”
Emma looked at her sadly.
“Maybe because you never told him the truth.”
Claire lifted the poker again.
“Stop talking.”
Emma heard Nathan through the phone.
“Emma, stall her. Police are coming.”
Claire heard him too.
Her eyes went to the device.
She lunged.
Emma moved.
The poker slammed into the side table.
A lamp shattered.
Emma ran behind the sofa.
Claire came after her.
The library door was locked from inside.
The nearest windows opened onto a stone terrace, but they were reinforced against mountain winds and required manual latches.
Emma grabbed a chair.
“Stay back.”
Claire laughed.
“You’re threatening me with furniture?”
“I’m warning you.”
“You destroyed my life.”
“No, Claire. You did.”
Claire swung.
Emma raised the chair.
The poker struck wood and bounced aside.
Emma shoved hard.
Claire stumbled.
The poker fell.
Emma ran for the door.
Claire grabbed the back of her sweater.
Fabric ripped.
Emma turned instinctively and pushed.
Claire fell against the wall.
The phone slid across the carpet.
Nathan’s voice shouted from the speaker.
Then glass exploded.
Two security officers entered through the terrace window.
Claire screamed.
They restrained her.
Emma backed against the bookshelf, shaking.
One officer unlocked the library door.
Dolores rushed inside.
Emma had never been hugged so hard in her life.
Nathan reached the estate twenty-eight minutes later.
Claire sat in the front parlor with an attorney already on the way.
She had not been arrested.
Not yet.
Arthur’s accusation required investigation. The library incident had ended without serious injury. Claire claimed Emma attacked her first.
Nathan walked past her without speaking.
He found Emma in the kitchen.
A paramedic was examining a cut on her forearm.
Their eyes met.
Nathan stopped.
Emma had expected anger.
Or questions.
Instead, he crossed the room and pulled her into his arms.
She froze.
So did everyone else.
Nathan held her tightly.
Too tightly.
His breath shook.
Emma slowly raised one hand.
“Nathan.”
“I told you to leave.”
“I tried.”
“You should never have been there.”
“I know.”
“This happened because of me.”
Emma pulled back.
“No.”
Nathan looked at her.
“This happened because Claire made choices.”
The sentence struck somewhere deep.
He nodded.
Then noticed he was still holding her.
He stepped away.
“Sorry.”
Emma looked down.
“It’s okay.”
Dolores pretended to be very interested in a teapot.
Claire left the estate that evening.
Nathan ended the engagement privately.
He also froze every financial account she had accessed, contacted law enforcement regarding the forgery, and hired an external forensic team to review every transaction connected to Ridgeview Consulting and Victor Hale.
For three days, Nathan barely slept.
Emma returned home.
She did not return to work.
Nathan did not ask her to.
On the fourth morning, Claire appeared on television.
Nathan was in his Denver office when an assistant turned on the news.
Claire stood outside a hotel surrounded by cameras.
Her eyes were swollen.
Her voice trembled.
“I loved Nathan Cole.”
Nathan stared at the screen.
Claire continued.
“I still love him.”
A reporter shouted a question.
Claire shook her head.
“I cannot discuss an active investigation. But I will say this. I became concerned about an inappropriate relationship between Nathan and a member of his household staff.”
Nathan went still.
A photograph appeared.
Emma.
Her employee identification picture.
Claire continued.
“When I confronted the employee, she became increasingly hostile. Nathan changed.”
Nathan’s face hardened.
Another reporter asked about the forgery allegations.
Claire began to cry.
“I made financial mistakes trying to protect my mother from debts left by my father. I never intended to harm anyone.”
The narrative formed in real time.
Desperate fiancée.
Manipulative employee.
Emotionally vulnerable billionaire.
Within two hours, Emma’s photograph was everywhere.
By noon, reporters stood outside her apartment.
By evening, someone had spray-painted GOLD DIGGER across the entrance.
Nathan called.
She did not answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
He drove there.
Emma opened the door after fifteen minutes.
She looked exhausted.
Nathan stepped inside.
“I’m getting you somewhere secure.”
“No.”
“Emma.”
“I am not moving into another house you own.”
“Fine. A hotel.”
“No.”
“There are people outside.”
“I noticed.”
“They know your name.”
“Claire gave it to them.”
Nathan looked ashamed.
“I’m sorry.”
“You keep apologizing for her.”
“I’m apologizing because you were dragged into my life.”
Emma shook her head.
“I chose to speak up.”
“You shouldn’t have had to.”
Nathan looked at the wall behind her.
A nursing school brochure was pinned beside the kitchen.
Emma followed his gaze.
“I applied.”
He looked at her.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
For the first time in days, he smiled.
“Good.”
“Don’t offer to pay.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You were.”
“I was going to congratulate you.”
She almost smiled.
A knock sounded.
Both froze.
Nathan’s security instincts took over.
“Stay here.”
He approached the door.
“Who is it?”
A woman answered.
“My name is Evelyn Shaw. I need to speak with Emma Reed.”
Emma frowned.
Nathan looked through the peephole.
A woman in her early forties stood outside wearing jeans and a dark coat.
Behind her were two reporters shouting questions.
Nathan opened the door only far enough to see her.
“Who are you?”
She held up an identification card.
EVELYN SHAW.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION.
Nathan’s expression changed.
“What do you want?”
“Victor Hale.”
Nathan opened the door.
Evelyn stepped inside.
She looked at Emma.
“Ms. Reed, I believe Claire Whitmore tried to frame you because you accidentally got close to something my office has been investigating for eighteen months.”
Emma stared.
“What?”
Evelyn set a photograph on the table.
Victor Hale stood beside Adrian Whitmore.
Between them was a third man.
Nathan recognized him.
His own former head of security.
Evelyn pointed.
“This man gave Claire access to your authentication system.”
Nathan’s blood went cold.
“He left my company two years ago.”
“Officially.”
Nathan looked up.
Evelyn’s next words turned the room silent.
“He has been working for Victor Hale ever since.”
Emma whispered, “What are they trying to do?”
Evelyn answered.
“They’re not just stealing from Nathan.”
May you like
She looked directly at him.
“They are planning to kill him.”
