Chapter 10 - The Real TargetWhy They Needed Clara to Be the Villain
The cemetery was empty.
Too empty.
Clara refused to go alone.
She arrived with Daniel and two detectives hidden nearby.
Rachel wanted to come.
Adam tried to stop her.
"No."
Rachel looked at him.
"This began with me."
"No, it began with my mother."
Clara looked toward the grave.
"There is something she wants us to find."
Behind the tombstone was a metal box.
Inside were dozens of envelopes.
All addressed to Clara.
She opened the first.
You were hired because Margaret trusted you.
Clara frowned.
She opened another.
You were never just a maid.
Daniel looked shocked.
"What does that mean?"
Clara shook her head.
She opened another.
Inside was a photograph of herself from eleven years earlier.
She was standing outside the Hamilton mansion.
Beside her was Rachel.
Clara remembered that day.
Rachel had interviewed her personally.
She had asked about her life.
About her family.
About whether she had ever worked for wealthy households.
Nothing seemed unusual.
Then Clara remembered one sentence.
Rachel had said:
"If anything ever happens to me, protect my son."
Clara had thought it was the strange request of an anxious mother.
Maybe it wasn't.
She opened the final envelope.
Inside was a letter.
Rachel's handwriting.
Clara, I chose you because you are the only person Margaret never considered dangerous.
Clara's eyes filled with tears.
The letter continued.
Rachel had suspected Margaret was planning to steal the trust money.
She needed someone inside the house who would be close to Idan.
Someone trustworthy.
Someone invisible.
Clara.
Rachel had never told her because Margaret monitored everyone.
Then the letter took a darker turn.
The emerald is not merely jewelry. It contains a microfilm hidden in the setting.
Daniel froze.
"Microfilm?"
Clara nodded.
"The necklace contains financial evidence."
Daniel looked at the mansion.
"The emerald was never stolen for money."
"Then why?"
"Because someone wanted the evidence destroyed."
The ground seemed to disappear beneath them.
Rachel had hidden proof inside the necklace.
Margaret had staged the theft to get control of it.
But Clara had discovered it first.
And now they understood why Clara had been framed.
She was not merely convenient.
She was the only person who could have exposed everything.
Suddenly one of the detectives shouted.
"Down!"
A gunshot cracked through the cemetery.
Everyone dropped.
Another shot.
Then silence.
The attacker escaped through the trees.
Daniel grabbed the metal box.
Clara looked at the envelopes.
One was missing.
The one addressed to Adam.
Back at the police station, the mystery deepened.
The stolen evidence was brought to the lab.
The emerald was recovered from the mansion.
Technicians carefully opened its setting.
Inside was a tiny film strip.
Financial records.
Photographs.
Signed documents.
And one final image.
Adam Hamilton standing with Margaret.
Beside them was Adrian.
But behind them stood another woman.
A woman Clara had never met.
Daniel enlarged the image.
Clara stared.
She recognized the face.
It was the woman who had delivered the flowers on the day the emerald supposedly disappeared.
Rachel looked at the photograph.
Her face turned white.
"That's not a woman."
"What?"
"That's a man."
Elias nodded.
"Margaret's longtime accountant."
Daniel looked confused.
"Then why is he dressed as a woman?"
Rachel whispered:
"Because he was supposed to enter the mansion without being recognized."
The accountant had disappeared six years earlier.
The same year the trust records were altered.
The same year Rachel vanished.
Clara suddenly understood.
"This person has been working for Margaret for years."
Daniel nodded.
"And now he's coming back."
A police officer burst into the room.
"We just received surveillance footage."
"What is it?"
"From the Hamilton mansion."
He placed a tablet on the desk.
The video showed the accountant entering the mansion.
But he was not alone.
He was holding hands with someone.
May you like
A child.
Idan.
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