Chapter 5 - Why Vivian Chose Claire
Vivian’s attorney called the footage “incomplete.”
Rachel called it evidence.
Vivian was arrested for kidnapping, unlawful confinement, financial crimes, and child endangerment while investigators searched for Claire.
But the biggest question remained.
Where was she?
The footage showed Claire alive in the basement for three days.
Vivian brought food.
Water.
Blankets.
Then on the fourth night, a man entered.
Ethan didn’t recognize him.
Tall.
Gray jacket.
Baseball cap.
The camera never captured his face clearly.
Together, Vivian and the man moved Claire upstairs on a stretcher.
After that, nothing.
No body.
No Claire.
No explanation.
Rachel showed the image to Vivian.
“Who is he?”
Vivian smiled.
“I want a deal.”
Ethan nearly exploded when he heard.
“A deal?”
Rachel remained calm.
“She knows where Claire went.”
“Then make her talk.”
“That isn’t how this works.”
“She kidnapped my wife!”
“And if Claire is alive, getting her back matters more than making Vivian feel punished today.”
Ethan knew Rachel was right.
He hated it anyway.
Vivian demanded reduced kidnapping charges in exchange for information.
Prosecutors refused to promise that much.
So Vivian gave them something smaller.
A name.
Dr. Malcolm Pierce.
Ethan knew him.
Everyone in their social circle did.
Private psychiatrist.
Concierge patients.
Discretion.
Malcolm had treated Vivian years earlier.
He had also signed a letter after Claire disappeared claiming Claire suffered from “severe postpartum emotional instability.”
Ethan had never questioned it.
“Was Claire his patient?” Rachel asked.
“No.”
“Then why did he write that?”
Ethan’s stomach turned.
Malcolm had based it entirely on Vivian’s claims.
Police searched his clinic.
They found no Claire.
But they found payments.
Vivian had transferred $600,000 to Malcolm through the same shell companies used in the charity fraud.
Then they found a private property.
A rehabilitation center in Vermont.
Not publicly advertised.
Owned through a trust connected to Malcolm.
Rachel called the local sheriff.
By dawn, police were outside.
Ethan stayed beside his phone.
At 6:13 a.m., Rachel called.
“We found records.”
His knees weakened.
“Claire?”
“Her name isn’t listed.”
Hope collapsed.
“But a patient was admitted eleven months ago under another name.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“Description?”
“Female. Mid-thirties. Brown hair. Sedated on arrival.”
His voice broke.
“Is she there?”
“No.”
The patient remained for six weeks.
Then disappeared.
Malcolm’s notes claimed she transferred to another facility.
There was no destination.
No discharge signature.
No insurance.
No legitimate medical referral.
But one employee remembered her.
A former nurse named Dana Cole.
“She kept saying her name was Claire,” Dana told police.
“She said she had a husband named Ethan and a baby named Lily.”
Ethan covered his face.
“She was alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you report it?”
Dana began crying.
“Dr. Pierce told us she was delusional.”
Ethan’s fists tightened.
Dana continued.
“She tried to escape twice.”
“Did she succeed?”
“Not then.”
“What happened after six weeks?”
Dana looked frightened.
“I came in one morning and she was gone.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Then she remembered something.
The night before Claire vanished, Vivian had arrived.
Not Malcolm.
Vivian.
And Dana overheard Claire screaming one sentence through a locked door:
“You can steal my name, but Ethan will eventually find Lily’s birth video.”
Ethan stared.
Birth video?
He had hundreds of clips from Lily’s birth.
But Claire had said the.
A specific one.
He rushed home.
Opened their old cloud account.
And found a video Claire had uploaded privately two days before Lily was born.
It wasn’t a birth video.
It was labeled that way to hide it.
When Ethan pressed play, Claire appeared on screen.
Alive.
Pregnant.
Serious.
“If Vivian ever tells you I left…”
May you like
Ethan stopped breathing.
“…don’t believe her.”
