Chapter 16 - What Oliver Knew
Claire turned her phone face down.
Emmett didn't reach for it or demand to see her private messages.
He simply asked her to explain why Vivian would mention Oliver.
Claire stared at the table.
“Oliver is my sister's son,” she said.
“She's been raising him without much help.”
“Why did you tell me he was yours?”
“Because Mother told me you'd be more willing to listen if you thought I understood raising a child.”
Emmett sat back, stunned.
Claire wiped her eyes.
“The photograph was supposed to prove I had a family of my own.”
“Oliver is a person, not a prop,” he said.
She flinched at the truth of it.
Then she told us that Vivian had long resented Richard's habit of mixing family obligations with business interests.
Her sister, Celeste, lived in Raleigh and had repeatedly asked Vivian to stop using Oliver's photographs to impress people.
Claire claimed she hadn't known about the proposed guardianship filing until she saw an early draft.
But she admitted she'd sent the photographer the exclusion instructions herself.
“I didn't want Margot beside us in every picture,” she said.
“I thought I could finally have one moment that was mine.”
Emmett's voice was tired.
“You had a wedding full of moments about you.”
“You took hers away to make them yours.”
Claire cried then, without theatrical gestures.
I felt no satisfaction in it.
Her remorse, if it was genuine, could not reverse what Margot had heard.
The mediator suggested a pause.
In the hallway Claire asked to speak to me.
I said she could, with Naomi nearby.
“I know you'll never forgive me,” she said.
“Forgiveness isn't today's question,” I replied.
“The question is whether you can stop causing harm and tell the truth.”
She looked at the closed conference-room door.
“There are records in Mother's study,” she said.
“Records of payments to someone who was supposed to make Emmett look unstable.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“Who?”
“I don't know the person's real name.”
Then she said the last detail in a whisper.
May you like
“But I know he was at the wedding.”
