Chapter 5 - Someone Was Still Using Claire’s NameBenjamin changed every password in the house.
Then he changed them again.
The second administrator account had been created while Claire was alive. According to system logs, it had accessed cameras, alarm records, smart locks, and household files hundreds of times since her death.
Natalie stared at the screen.
“Someone has been logging in as Claire for two years?”
Benjamin nodded.
“And we never noticed.”
Ortiz asked for the server to be preserved.
Rachel called the bank and placed an emergency fraud hold on the pending credit facility.
It delayed Thursday’s funding.
It did not cancel it.
“The bank has documents that appear valid,” Rachel explained. “We need proof of forgery.”
Eleanor looked sick.
“My signature was forged.”
“Maybe,” Rachel said. “But because you admit giving Gloria signed incomplete forms two years ago, we have to establish whether she repurposed one.”
Benjamin looked at Eleanor.
That distinction mattered.
Forgery was one crime.
Filling in a document someone had recklessly signed could become a much uglier legal fight.
Sophie remained upstairs with Natalie.
She refused to sleep.
Every time a door closed, she jumped.
Natalie sat on the rug beside her bed.
“Do you want the hallway light on?”
“Yes.”
“The bathroom light too?”
Sophie nodded.
Natalie left both on.
After a while Sophie whispered, “Is Grandma bad?”
Natalie chose her words carefully.
“Grandma made mistakes.”
“Did she put me in there?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophie rubbed her eyes.
“Daddy thinks she did.”
“Daddy is scared.”
“So am I.”
Natalie moved closer.
“Then we’ll be scared together.”
Sophie gave a tiny nod.
Her gaze drifted toward the broken music box now missing from the room because police had taken it.
“Mommy told me not to tell.”
Natalie’s pulse quickened.
“When?”
“When she was sick.”
“You remember that?”
“Some.”
Sophie had been four when Claire died.
Small children remembered fragments differently—sounds, colors, promises.
“What did she tell you?”
“She said the bird had something for Daddy.”
“The key?”
Sophie nodded.
“And the black thing?”
Another nod.
“Why didn’t you tell Daddy before?”
“Mommy said when I was bigger.”
Sophie’s face crumpled.
“I thought six was bigger.”
Natalie swallowed tears.
“It is.”
“I did bad?”
“No.”
Natalie took Sophie’s hands.
“You did exactly what Mommy hoped you would do.”
That night Benjamin searched Claire’s old belongings.
He had boxed most of them after her death but never removed them from the mansion.
Eleanor appeared in the doorway.
“Benjamin.”
He did not turn.
“You should sleep.”
“My daughter was hidden in a cabinet while someone tried to steal almost two million dollars from her.”
“I know.”
“No. You know pieces.”
He faced her.
“I need the rest.”
“I told you everything.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Eleanor’s expression tightened.
“That’s fair.”
Benjamin stopped.
She had not defended herself.
Eleanor stepped into the room.
“Claire had a blue ledger.”
Benjamin’s breath caught.
“The recording mentioned that.”
“She kept household expenses in it before she got sick. Gloria eventually took over most of the bookkeeping.”
“Where is it?”
“I thought Claire destroyed it.”
“Why?”
“Because one night, maybe four months before she died, I found her burning papers in the fireplace.”
Benjamin stared.
“What papers?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never asked?”
“She was crying.”
Eleanor’s voice softened.
“She looked at me and said, ‘Mom, if Benjamin knew what I let happen, he would never forgive me.’”
Benjamin’s anger became confusion.
“Let what happen?”
“She never answered.”
Downstairs, Natalie was getting water when she noticed the smart refrigerator screen glowing.
A notification had appeared.
REMOTE DEVICE CONNECTED.
She called Benjamin.
He came downstairs.
Together they opened the network activity.
Someone had briefly reconnected to the household system through an old exterior maintenance controller that Gloria’s company had once installed.
The connection lasted forty-seven seconds.
Long enough to download one file.
The kitchen camera archive.
The exact archive police had copied earlier.
Then Benjamin noticed something else.
The remote user had searched one phrase before disconnecting.
BLUE LEDGER.
May you like
Someone outside the house was still looking for the same thing Claire had hidden.
And now they knew Benjamin was looking too.
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