Chapter 2 - THE NAME INSIDE THE LOCKET My knees nearly gave out.
Daniel caught my elbow.
I pulled away immediately.
Too many people in that house had already decided they could touch me whenever they wanted.
Margaret couldn't stop staring at the photograph.
“My daughter wore that locket the night she disappeared.”
“How old was she?”
“Twenty-two.”
Her voice dropped.
“She was pregnant.”
Victor Lang, Harrington Holdings' chief financial officer, stepped forward.
“Margaret, you're upset.”
She ignored him.
“She was carrying a child.”
Victor's jaw tightened.
“This girl cannot possibly be—”
“Don't call me girl.”
My voice surprised even me.
Victor looked at me differently.
For the first time, he seemed to understand that I wasn't going to disappear quietly.
Daniel ordered the mansion doors locked.
Detective Sofia Reyes was called.
Vanessa protested.
“You can't keep me here.”
Daniel looked at the security footage.
“You planted stolen property inside an employee's bag.”
His eyes hardened.
“You can wait for the police.”
While everyone argued, I turned the locket over.
Behind the photograph was a tiny strip of yellowed paper.
A sequence of numbers.
I had carried it since childhood.
I'd never understood it.
Margaret did.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
“That is Claire's trust number.”
Victor laughed.
Too loudly.
“Anyone could have copied it.”
“No,” Margaret whispered.
“Only four people knew that number.”
Victor stopped laughing.
A gray-haired attorney entered the foyer.
Michael Grant.
He had represented the Harrington family for almost forty years.
He carried a locked metal case.
He looked at the locket.
Then at Margaret.
Then at me.
“I received a message tonight.”
He opened the case.
Inside was a sealed envelope bearing one name.
CLAIRE HARRINGTON.
Margaret began to cry.
Michael broke the seal.
“Claire left this with my office three days before she disappeared.”
He pulled out a birth record, a handwritten letter, and a photograph.
A young Claire held a newborn baby.
Around the baby's tiny wrist was my silver locket.
Michael looked at me.
“The child's name is Emily Claire Harrington.”
My heart stopped.
He turned the page.
“And according to the original family trust…”
May you like
He paused.
“You own controlling interest in Harrington Holdings.”
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