Chapter 6 - UNEARTHING THE PAST
The temporary custody hearing was set for the following week, but Isaac knew that simply proving paternity wouldn't be enough to put Richard behind bars. Richard was powerful, wealthy, and ruthless. To destroy him, Isaac needed to find out what really happened to Clara nine years ago.
Isaac hired Marcus Thorne, a sharp, unyielding family law attorney who owed Isaac a favor after Isaac spent weeks fixing Thorne's classic car for free.
Together, they dug into Clara’s medical records and her final months at the private care facility in Ohio.
"Look at this," Marcus said, laying out a stack of financial documents across Isaac’s kitchen table while the kids slept upstairs. "Clara’s grandfather left an estate worth twelve million dollars. The condition was clear: if Clara died, her biological children would inherit everything upon turning twenty-one, managed by a court-appointed trustee."
"Richard married her right after she disappeared from my life," Isaac noted, tracing the timeline. "How did he force her to leave me?"
"I talked to an old neighbor of Clara’s mother," Marcus replied grimly. "Nine years ago, Richard framed you for a hit-and-run accident that nearly killed an elderly woman. He told Clara that if she didn't leave town with him immediately and cut all ties with you, he would use his family’s influence to make sure you spent twenty years in state prison."
Isaac stared at the paper, his heart burning with rage. Clara had sacrificed her own happiness, her entire life, to save him from a prison sentence for a crime he never committed. She had lived in a gilded cage for seven years, enduring Richard's psychological and physical abuse, just to keep Isaac safe.
"There's more," Marcus said softly, pushing a small velvet pouch across the table. "I contacted the head nurse who treated Clara during her final weeks at the facility in Ohio. Before Clara passed, she gave the nurse a package to hide from Richard. The nurse kept it in a safety deposit box... waiting for someone to come asking."
Isaac opened the velvet pouch.
Inside was a small, worn leather diary with Clara’s elegant handwriting on the cover, along with a USB drive.
Isaac opened the first page of the diary. Tears blurred his vision as he read her familiar handwriting:
“To my sweet Erica and Emma... if you are reading this, it means I am gone, and Richard has failed to erase the truth. I never stopped loving your father, Isaac Vance. I surrendered my freedom so he could remain free. Every bruise I bore was a shield for him, and later, for you...”
Attached to the back cover of the diary was a medical report written by an independent doctor—proof that Clara hadn't died of natural respiratory failure. Richard had been deliberately administering low doses of toxic chemicals to her food, slowly shutting down her lungs so he could take full control of the trust fund.
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Clara hadn't just been abused.
She had been murdered.
