Chapter 8 - When the Chandelier Went DarkDarkness swallowed the room.
Someone screamed.
Noah dropped beside the casket.
“Mom!”
Claire struck the inside again.
Three quick knocks.
She was still alive.
Emergency lights flickered red along the walls.
The massive chandelier remained dark.
Guests moved toward the exits, but Victoria shouted.
“Stop! Don't create a crush!”
Daniel's voice came from somewhere near the coffin.
“Everyone stay where you are.”
Victoria almost laughed at the absurdity.
He was still giving orders.
Even now.
Then a phone flashlight appeared.
Another.
Soon pale beams moved across the marble floor.
Noah stayed pressed against the casket.
He would not leave Claire again.
Victoria found Daniel several feet away.
The gun was still in his hand but pointed downward.
“Who is watching us?”
He ignored her.
She grabbed his arm.
“Answer me.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You think I put Claire in there.”
“Didn't you?”
“No.”
“Then why did you try to stop Noah?”
Daniel looked toward the coffin.
“Because I was told if the casket opened before the burial, Claire would die.”
Victoria stared at him.
“That makes no sense.”
“I received photographs.”
“Of Claire?”
He nodded.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Noah heard him.
He stood slowly.
“You knew she was alive.”
Daniel looked at the boy.
His silence answered.
Noah's face collapsed.
“You knew.”
“I thought I could get her back.”
“You were going to bury her.”
“No.”
“The coffin was leaving this room!”
Daniel shouted.
“I had a plan!”
Noah stared at him with the kind of disgust only a child can show when an adult's excuses finally become smaller than the truth.
“You always have a plan.”
Daniel flinched.
“You had a plan when you sent me away.”
“Noah—”
“You had a plan when you told Mom I didn't belong in your house.”
“I never said that.”
“You said I belonged somewhere more appropriate.”
The words cut through the darkness.
Even Victoria remembered that phrase.
More appropriate.
A rich man's elegant way of saying a poor child did not belong.
Noah continued.
“You had a plan when you kept me from seeing her body.”
Daniel said nothing.
“And now you want everyone to believe you're the victim too.”
The emergency lights flickered.
Then the chandelier blazed back to life.
Everyone blinked.
Victoria looked toward the hidden camera.
It was gone.
So was Arthur Hale.
The old attorney had disappeared.
Daniel looked genuinely terrified.
“He has the original will.”
Victoria stared at him.
“You said someone else was behind this.”
Daniel looked toward the closed funeral doors.
“I think Arthur is working for them.”
“For who?”
Daniel answered with two words.
“The board.”
Victoria felt the entire story shift.
The Whitmore board controlled billions in assets.
Claire's revised will threatened Daniel's financial position.
But Arthur had worked for the family for thirty years.
If he had helped hide Claire inside a coffin, then this was bigger than one marriage.
Then Noah shouted.
“There's something else in here!”
Everyone turned.
Through the hole in the casket lid, Claire had managed to push a small object upward.
It fell onto the white surface.
A silver flash drive.
Daniel stared at it.
And whatever fear he had shown before was nothing compared with what appeared on his face now.
May you like
Because Claire had hidden evidence inside the coffin with her.
And Daniel knew exactly what was on it.
