Chapter 5 - The Sentence Claire Said Before She Left
That night I couldn’t sleep.
At two in the morning, I found myself sitting in my kitchen with the two halves of Owen’s wooden boat in front of me.
Three years earlier, on the night Claire died, she had called me.
I had replayed that conversation thousands of times after the accident.
Most of it was ordinary.
She sounded angry.
Distracted.
She told me she and Travis had fought.
I asked whether she wanted me to come to the lake house.
She said no.
Then, right before hanging up, she said something I had always assumed was about their marriage.
“They’re behind me again.”
At the time, I thought she meant Travis and Natalie emotionally.
Interfering.
Pressuring.
Taking sides.
But now I heard the sentence differently.
They’re behind me.
Not against me.
Behind me.
I pulled out my old phone backups.
Claire’s final voicemail was still there.
Twenty-one seconds.
I played it.
Wind.
An engine.
Claire breathing hard.
Then her voice:
“Dad, I’m going back across. I just need ten minutes away from them. They’re behind me again, and I swear if Travis doesn’t stop—”
A horn blasted somewhere behind her.
Claire cursed.
The recording ended.
I sat completely motionless.
For three years, Travis had told everyone he remained at the lake house after Claire left alone.
Natalie claimed she had driven home almost an hour before.
So who exactly had been behind Claire on the water?
I replayed the horn.
Once.
Twice.
Then I noticed something I had missed for three years.
Under Claire’s voice was another engine.
Close.
May you like
Much too close.
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