Chapter 4 - The Red File
Claire and Rebecca reached the storage facility too late.
Evelyn was gone.
Boxes had been moved.
A plastic bin had been dumped across the floor.
Rebecca searched frantically.
“No.”
“What?”
“The red file.”
Claire looked around.
“What was in it?”
“Everything Megan wanted Ryan to have.”
Rebecca turned.
“Original letters. Records. A flash drive.”
Claire’s pulse jumped.
“What was on the drive?”
“Recordings.”
“Of who?”
Rebecca stared at her.
“Evelyn.”
Claire called Daniel immediately.
“Where is your mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
“Claire—”
“She was inside Megan’s storage unit.”
Silence.
“What?”
“Get to her house.”
Twenty-five minutes later, Claire and Rebecca entered Evelyn Bennett’s mansion.
Daniel stood in the foyer.
Evelyn descended the stairs wearing the same cream coat.
She smiled.
“This is becoming absurd.”
Claire held up the security image.
“You broke into Megan’s storage unit.”
“I had an access code.”
“She’s dead.”
“I was retrieving Bennett family property.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“My sister wasn’t your property.”
Evelyn rolled her eyes.
Daniel moved between them.
“Mom. Where’s the red file?”
Evelyn’s expression barely changed.
“I have no idea what you mean.”
Claire watched her carefully.
Then noticed Evelyn’s handbag on the marble console table.
A corner of red cardboard protruded from inside.
Claire looked at it.
Evelyn followed her gaze.
Both moved.
Daniel reached the bag first.
“Give me that!”
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
Daniel pulled away.
The handbag fell.
Papers scattered.
A black flash drive bounced across the marble.
Everybody froze.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“What is that?”
Evelyn stared at him.
“Daniel—”
Rebecca picked it up.
“You spent ten years silencing my sister.”
Evelyn’s calm expression finally cracked.
“Give me that.”
Claire took the drive from Rebecca.
“No.”
Evelyn stepped toward her.
Claire didn’t move.
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
Claire’s voice became quiet.
“I’m finally finding out.”
They opened the drive on Evelyn’s study computer.
Dozens of audio files appeared.
Claire clicked the oldest.
Megan’s voice filled the room.
“Mrs. Bennett, I’m recording this because you keep changing your story.”
Evelyn’s recorded voice answered.
“You are making a mistake.”
“The paternity report is fake.”
Silence.
Then Evelyn said:
“If you keep pushing, you’ll spend every dollar you have fighting people who can spend more in a week than you’ll earn in ten years.”
Daniel went white.
Claire looked at Evelyn.
She didn’t look powerful anymore.
May you like
She looked caught.
👉 Evelyn had finally been trapped by Megan’s own voice—but the next recording proved Daniel had known far more than Claire ever imagined.
