Chapter 8 - Claire Tried To Stop Beth Before She Reached Ryan
Claire called Beth pretending she wanted to help.
It was one of the worst decisions she made.
She said Ryan knew about Lily but believed introducing himself while Nora was dying would destabilize the child.
Beth did not believe her.
Then Claire changed tactics.
She admitted she had seen some of Nora’s old messages years earlier.
Not that she had deleted them.
Only that there had been “confusion.”
Beth became furious.
“What confusion?”
Claire said she needed to explain in person.
By then Nora was back in the hospital, and Beth was overwhelmed. She agreed to meet Claire near the Carter house because she wanted answers before bringing Ryan into Lily’s life.
That afternoon Beth arrived with Lily.
Ryan was supposed to be working until evening.
Ethan was home.
Claire told Beth Ryan had been delayed but had agreed to speak to her later. She offered to let Lily rest at the house while Beth drove back to the nearby hotel to retrieve Nora’s original letters and the folder containing Lily’s birth records.
Beth hesitated.
Lily was tired after hours at the hospital the previous night.
Claire was Ryan’s wife.
Ethan was there.
The house looked perfectly ordinary.
Beth made the mistake of trusting that environment for less than an hour.
The moment her car left the driveway, Claire panicked.
She knew Beth would return with documents proving the pregnancy communication.
She knew Ryan might arrive early.
She also knew Lily could identify him immediately from photographs.
So Claire told Lily they were going to play “a quiet game” in an old room while Claire handled an adult problem.
Lily resisted.
Claire became firmer.
She led her into the unused service passage and locked the outer maintenance door.
Not for days.
Not even overnight.
For what Claire told herself would be twenty minutes.
Then Beth called.
Claire ignored it.
Twenty minutes became forty.
Forty became nearly ninety.
Lily started crying.
Ethan heard her.
Then Ryan unexpectedly came home.
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Claire’s last attempt to delay the truth lasted only seconds after that.
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