Chapter 7 - ELEVEN MINUTES
The recording began with Claire breathing hard.
“You are stealing from the company.”
Vanessa answered, “You cannot prove anything.”
Elliot Price, Carter Meridian's chief financial officer, spoke in the background. “Give us the drive.”
Claire laughed bitterly. “You are terrified of what happens when Daniel wakes up.”
Then came a struggle. Glass broke. A body struck something heavy.
Claire screamed once.
Vanessa began crying. “I didn't mean to push her.”
Marcus Hale's voice cut through the panic. “She is breathing. Get the car.”
Elliot asked, “And if she wakes up?”
Hale answered, “Then we decide who she is allowed to be.”
The final minutes held only footsteps and Claire's faint, uneven breathing.
Noah covered his mouth. Daniel stared at the frozen audio line on the laptop.
Ruiz listened twice. “This proves assault and conspiracy. It doesn't prove what happened afterward.”
The phone rang.
Marcus Hale said, “You found the card.”
Daniel stood. “Where is Claire?”
“Come to the garage beneath my clinic. Alone.”
May you like
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because Claire lived for thirty-six hours after that recording.”
