Chapter 5 - THE NAME INSIDE THE WATCH
Claire spent the afternoon searching through old family records.
Lucas Whitmore.
The name meant nothing.
At first.
Then she remembered something her grandmother had once said.
A boy.
A child born outside the family.
A branch of the Whitmore family that had been quietly erased after a scandal decades earlier.
Claire had dismissed it as one of those stories wealthy families invented to explain old photographs.
Now she wasn't so sure.
She opened the drawer beside her bed.
Inside was a wooden box.
Her grandfather's watch rested inside.
Claire lifted it.
The watch had belonged to three generations of Whitmore men.
Her grandfather had given it to her father.
Her father had given it to Claire.
She turned it over.
There was an inscription.
For the one who remembers.
Claire had never understood it.
Until now.
She noticed a tiny seam around the back.
Using her fingernail, she opened it.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
Her hands began to tremble.
The paper was old.
Yellowed.
Almost brittle.
Three words were written on it.
Lucas is yours.
Claire sat down.
A memory surfaced.
Her mother crying in the kitchen when Claire was twelve.
Her grandfather arguing with someone behind a closed door.
A family photograph with one boy mysteriously absent.
Claire's breath caught.
She called Daniel.
“I found something.”
Meanwhile, Evan was confronting the one person he had never expected to confront.
His father-in-law's former accountant.
The old man lived quietly in Connecticut.
Evan arrived without warning.
“I need information.”
The man looked at him.
“You shouldn't be here.”
“I need to know about Lucas Whitmore.”
The old accountant's expression changed.
“You know the name?”
“Who was he?”
The old man sighed.
“Not who.”
“What?”
“What happened to him.”
Evan's voice hardened.
“Tell me.”
“He was Claire's half-brother.”
Evan froze.
“Half-brother?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to leave.”
Evan stepped closer.
“What did Claire know?”
“Nothing.”
“Why was his name added to the trust?”
The old man stared at him.
“Because Claire's grandfather wanted the family to remember him.”
Evan's mind raced.
“Then why did you help me?”
The old man looked genuinely confused.
“Help you?”
“With the trust.”
“I never helped you.”
Evan went still.
“Who did?”
The old man didn't answer.
Then his eyes dropped toward Evan's wrist.
“The watch.”
Evan looked down.
He wasn't wearing his watch.
Claire's grandfather's watch was not with him.
But the old man smiled faintly.
“That's interesting.”
“What?”
“That means Claire has it.”
Evan left without another word.
That evening, Claire met Daniel in a quiet restaurant.
She placed the old paper on the table.
“Lucas was my mother's son.”
Daniel nodded.
“From before your parents married.”
Claire stared at him.
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Family shame.”
Claire looked away.
“Then why is Evan involved?”
“We don't know.”
She unfolded another document.
A recent transaction.
A payment had been made from the Whitmore Preservation Trust.
To a small medical foundation in Vermont.
The beneficiary name was Lucas Whitmore.
Claire's heart began pounding.
“He's alive.”
Daniel nodded.
“That appears to be the case.”
“Why would Evan know?”
“We don't know if he does.”
Claire looked at the payment date.
Three weeks earlier.
Then she saw the address.
A rehabilitation center.
Claire stood.
“I want to go there.”
Daniel reached for his coat.
“I'll drive.”
“No.”
She picked up the watch.
“I need to do this myself.”
When Claire arrived at the rehabilitation center, a nurse greeted her.
“Are you Claire Whitmore?”
“Yes.”
The nurse smiled sadly.
“He's been waiting for you.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“Lucas?”
The nurse nodded.
Then she opened a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
A young man standing beside an older woman.
On the back was a handwritten sentence.
May you like
Evan Hale found me first.
Claire's blood ran cold.
