Chapter 3 - CLAIRE MERCER
Her name was Claire Mercer.
Victoria said it reluctantly.
One word at a time.
Claire had been six years older.
She disappeared when Victoria was seventeen.
Ethan stared at her from the hotel doorway.
“You told me you were an only child.”
“I didn't want to talk about her.”
“So you erased her?”
“You don't understand my family.”
“You keep saying that.”
Victoria lowered her voice.
“Claire destroyed us.”
“How?”
“She left.”
“People leave.”
“She didn't just leave.”
Victoria glanced down the hallway.
“Can we please talk somewhere private?”
“No.”
“Ethan.”
“My daughter is inside that room.”
Victoria flinched.
He continued.
“You lost the right to ask me for privacy when I found your hand in Lily's hair.”
Victoria looked away.
“What happened to Claire?”
“We don't know.”
“She disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“Police?”
“Yes.”
“Was she found?”
“No.”
Ethan looked down at the pendant.
“Why did you have this?”
Victoria's response came too quickly.
“She gave it to me.”
“When?”
“A long time ago.”
“Before she disappeared?”
“Yes.”
Ethan watched her face.
Something was wrong.
“Then why were you terrified when Lily found it?”
Victoria's jaw tightened.
“I wasn't terrified.”
“You turned white.”
“Because it's personal.”
“You hit a child over something personal?”
Victoria suddenly became defensive.
“I already said I lost control.”
“That isn't an explanation.”
“I loved Claire.”
“Then why have I never heard her name?”
Victoria didn't answer.
Ethan shut the door.
Five minutes later, he searched Claire Mercer.
The first result changed everything.
MISSING WOMAN STILL NOT FOUND AFTER SIX YEARS.
The article was eleven years old.
Ethan opened it.
A larger version of the same face appeared.
Claire Mercer, twenty-three.
Last seen June 17, 2009.
The exact date engraved on the pendant.
Ethan scrolled.
Claire had disappeared from Briar County, Pennsylvania.
Her vehicle was found abandoned near a bus station three days later.
Her purse was inside.
Her phone was missing.
Police initially believed she left voluntarily.
Her family insisted she had been emotionally unstable.
Ethan continued reading.
Then he stopped.
The article included comments from Claire's younger sister.
Seventeen-year-old Victoria Mercer.
A quote appeared beneath Victoria's school photograph:
“She wanted to get away. I think she finally did.”
Ethan stared at it.
Victoria had told police she believed Claire ran away.
Another archived article appeared.
This one was published five years later.
It concerned a legal declaration of death.
Claire Mercer had been declared legally dead.
Her share of a family trust had been distributed to her surviving relatives.
Ethan read the amount twice.
$3.4 million.
The majority had gone to Claire's mother.
The remainder had gone to Victoria.
Ethan looked toward the bedroom.
Lily had fallen asleep.
He returned to the photograph.
Claire hadn't simply been Victoria's missing sister.
May you like
She had been a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
And Victoria had spent two years pretending she never existed.
