Chapter 3 - THE FIVE WOMEN WHO NEVER CAME HOME
By seven that evening, Sophie had changed out of her wedding dress and into jeans, boots, and a dark wool coat.
She had washed the makeup from her face, but the swelling around her eyes remained.
Her wedding gown lay across the guest-room bed like evidence from someone else's life.
Her engagement ring sat beside it.
She had removed it without ceremony.
The pain of losing Adrien would come later.
Right now, there were more important things to do.
The old public library on Tremont Street had been converted into a community archive, with reading rooms and a small courtyard accessible from the side entrance.
Sophie arrived twenty minutes early.
She chose a table facing the door.
At precisely seven thirty, Claire Morgan entered.
Claire was in her early forties, with tired blue eyes and the guarded posture of someone who had spent too many years keeping secrets.
She sat down without removing her coat.
“Did anyone follow you?”
“I don't think so.”
“Did you tell your mother?”
“No.”
Claire exhaled.
“Good.”
Sophie leaned forward.
“Start talking.”
Claire placed a manila folder on the table.
“I've worked at Cedar Hollow for eleven years. For most of that time, I believed we were providing specialized care to people recovering from serious injuries.”
“And now?”
“Now I believe the clinic has been used to hide people who became inconvenient.”
Sophie felt a chill.
“Hide them from whom?”
“From powerful families. Corporations. People with money and influence.”
Claire opened the folder.
Inside were photographs and copies of old medical records.
Five women's names appeared across the documents.
Anna Reynolds.
Maria Delgado.
Rebecca Cole.
Danielle Foster.
Élise Moreau.
Sophie recognized Anna immediately.
“What happened to them?”
Claire looked down.
“Anna was an accountant for a construction company. Maria was a legal assistant. Rebecca worked in real estate. Danielle was an investigative journalist.”
“And Élise?”
“Élise was a financial analyst working with the Valmont Foundation.”
Sophie stared.
She had always known Élise worked in finance, but Adrien rarely spoke about her career.
When he talked about Élise, he described her favorite books, her laugh, and the way she loved thunderstorms.
Never her work.
“Why were they taken to the clinic?”
“Because they discovered pieces of the same thing.”
Claire slid another paper across the table.
It was a financial statement showing transfers between charitable accounts and private investment companies.
Millions of dollars had moved through organizations with names that sounded compassionate and respectable.
Children's Health Initiative.
Community Housing Trust.
Family Recovery Fund.
Sophie recognized the names.
They were programs publicly funded by the Valmont Foundation.
Claire pointed to a column of numbers.
“Money meant for children's hospitals and affordable housing was being diverted into private development companies.”
Sophie slowly understood.
“The foundation was stealing donations?”
“Not the entire foundation. Certain people inside it.”
“Victor?”
Claire didn't answer immediately.
“That is what the records suggest.”
Sophie leaned back.
Victor's name was familiar from nearly every charitable event she had attended with Adrien.
He gave speeches about responsibility.
He posed for photographs with sick children.
He talked passionately about giving back to the community.
If Claire was right, he had built his reputation on money stolen from the people he pretended to help.
“Why didn't anyone report it?”
“Some did.”
Claire tapped Anna Reynolds's file.
“Anna raised concerns about missing funds. Three weeks later, she was admitted to Cedar Hollow after an alleged breakdown. Her employer told people she had become unstable.”
Sophie looked at the next page.
It contained a death notice.
Anna Reynolds had supposedly died in a car accident after leaving the clinic.
“Was she really killed?”
“I don't know. I never saw a death certificate or a body.”
“And the others?”
“Maria was declared mentally unfit to manage her affairs. Rebecca disappeared after signing a confidentiality agreement. Danielle was reported to have moved overseas.”
Sophie rubbed her forehead.
This was bigger than she had imagined.
Much bigger.
“And Élise?”
Claire's expression softened.
“She found evidence connecting the financial transfers to Victor. She planned to expose him during a foundation board meeting.”
“What happened?”
“Two days before that meeting, she was involved in a car accident.”
Sophie remembered the story Adrien had told her.
Élise had been driving home in heavy rain when her car left the road and struck a concrete barrier.
Emergency services had supposedly taken her to a hospital.
Afterward, she disappeared.
Police found evidence suggesting she had died, although her body was never recovered.
Adrien had spent months searching before finally accepting what everyone told him.
“Was the accident staged?” Sophie asked.
“I can't prove it.”
“But you believe it was.”
“Yes.”
Claire opened another file.
“Élise arrived at Cedar Hollow with a concussion, broken ribs, and a positive pregnancy test. She was confused and heavily sedated.”
“Did she know Adrien was looking for her?”
“No. She was told he had died in the accident.”
Sophie covered her mouth.
Claire continued.
“When she eventually learned he was alive, they told her he'd moved on with someone else.”
“With me.”
Claire nodded.
“They showed her photographs.”
Sophie felt something inside her collapse.
She had been photographed with Adrien at dinners, charity events, and eventually family gatherings.
Those photographs had become weapons against a woman who was pregnant, isolated, and desperate.
“Did Élise believe them?”
“At first, no. Then the months passed. She couldn't contact anyone. Eventually, she began to doubt herself.”
Sophie stared at the folder.
“Why would Victor want Adrien to marry me?”
Claire studied her carefully.
“Did your father own Bennett Development?”
“Yes.”
“And did he leave you his controlling shares?”
Sophie nodded.
Her father had founded the company thirty years earlier. Following his death, she inherited his fifty-one-percent stake, although she had never taken an active role in management.
Her mother handled most of the paperwork.
Claire placed a property map on the table.
A large tract of undeveloped land outside Boston was marked in red.
Sophie recognized the location.
Bennett Development owned it.
Her father had planned to build affordable apartments and a medical outreach center there.
Claire pointed to an adjacent parcel.
“Victor owns this land through one of his investment companies. But his development plans depend on access through your property.”
Sophie frowned.
“Why didn't he simply buy the land?”
“Your father refused to sell.”
“He wanted it used for community housing.”
“Exactly.”
Claire lowered her voice.
“Victor has been trying to acquire that property for years. And if he could persuade you to sign a merger agreement, he could finally take control.”
Sophie remembered a document Victor had asked her to review two weeks before the wedding.
He had described it as a routine agreement that would strengthen the partnership between the Bennett and Valmont families.
She had handed it to her lawyer.
Then wedding preparations had distracted her.
She hadn't signed it.
“Victor wanted the marriage because he wanted the land,” Sophie whispered.
“And he wanted you close enough to manipulate.”
Sophie felt sick.
Her love story might have been nothing more than a business transaction.
But another question troubled her.
“How did he know Adrien would fall in love with me?”
Claire's expression was grim.
“He didn't need to know.”
“What do you mean?”
“He only needed you to fall in love with Adrien.”
Sophie stared at her.
Claire continued.
“People who are desperate to be loved are sometimes willing to sign things they would otherwise question.”
Sophie looked away.
For months, she had ignored little moments that now seemed painfully significant.
Victor asking about her inheritance.
Victor encouraging Adrien to propose.
Victor arranging meetings between their families.
And Victor insisting that Sophie sign a revised estate agreement immediately after the wedding.
Her phone vibrated.
A message from her attorney, Daniel Brooks.
Sophie, I received an unusual request this afternoon. Someone tried to obtain your father's property records using your electronic authorization. I refused because the signature didn't match our records. Call me.
Sophie showed Claire.
Claire went pale.
“They've started moving.”
“Who?”
“Victor's people. If the wedding failed, they may be trying another route.”
Sophie reached for the folder.
“I'm taking this to the police.”
Claire grabbed her hand.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody inside the system has been protecting Cedar Hollow.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Find the original financial records. Without them, Victor will claim every document has been altered.”
“Where are they?”
Claire hesitated.
“Élise hid a copy before the accident.”
“Where?”
“She never told me.”
Sophie felt hope slipping away.
Then Claire opened the final page of the folder.
It was a photocopy of an old handwritten note.
The handwriting belonged to Michael Bennett.
Sophie's father.
She recognized every letter.
The note read:
If anything happens to me, the truth is where Sophie first learned to build.
Sophie stared at the words.
Her father had taught her to build model houses when she was a little girl.
They had spent countless weekends together in his workshop.
The same workshop that had remained locked since his death.
Suddenly, Sophie knew where she had to go.
She stood.
Claire grabbed her sleeve.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“I need you to understand that the people involved in this are dangerous.”
Sophie swallowed.
“I understand.”
“No, you don't.”
Claire slid one final photograph across the table.
It showed Michael Bennett standing outside Cedar Hollow five years earlier.
Beside him was Victor Valmont.
And between them stood Anna Reynolds.
The woman who had supposedly died in a car accident.
May you like
Claire's voice dropped to a whisper.
“Sophie, your father didn't die from a heart attack. He was the first person who tried to stop them.”
