Chapter 3: The First Call
At 3:06 a.m., Victor called.
Claire watched his name flash across the screen of her phone but did not answer. She let it ring until it went to voicemail.
Three minutes later, Olivia called.
Claire stared at the name for a moment, then declined the call as well.
She poured the rest of Victor’s drugged tea down the sink and rinsed the cup. Outside, the snow was falling harder now, covering the driveway in a thin white layer. She wondered if Victor’s flight had been delayed because of the weather. She hoped it had.
At 3:22 a.m., her lawyer, Margaret Hale, sent her a message.
Everything is in motion. The accounts are frozen. The FBI has already started reviewing the files. Do not speak to Victor or Olivia directly. Let them come to us.
Claire replied with a single word.
Understood.
She placed the phone down and walked into the living room. The house felt strangely large and quiet without Victor’s presence. For eleven years, she had filled these rooms with the sound of trying to please him — soft music when he came home stressed, dinners she spent hours preparing, conversations she shaped around whatever he wanted to talk about.
Now the silence felt different. It felt like hers.
At 3:41 a.m., Victor called again. This time he left a voicemail.
Claire played it on speaker.
“Claire, pick up the goddamn phone. Something’s wrong with the accounts. I can’t access anything. And my passport… they’re saying there’s a problem at the airport. Call me back. Now.”
His voice was no longer calm. The arrogance had already begun to crack.
Claire deleted the message without replying.
She made herself another cup of tea and carried it to the large window overlooking the backyard. The snow was beginning to stick to the trees. In a few hours, the sun would rise over a world that Victor no longer controlled.
She thought about the photo he had sent her — him and Olivia at the airport, smiling like they had already won.
Claire took a slow sip of tea.
Victor had always believed that silence meant weakness. He had believed that because she rarely argued, because she rarely raised her voice, she had nothing to fight with.
He was about to learn how wrong he had been.
Her phone lit up again with another call from Victor.
Claire turned the screen face down on the table and continued watching the snow fall.
May you like
She would answer when she was ready.
Not before.
