Chapter 17 - Daniel’s Second PhoneInvestigators found the second phone inside Daniel’s executive office.
Claire, Evelyn, and Officer Grant traveled to Bennett Systems while Officer Price remained at the house.
Daniel’s access card had already been disabled.
The office door rejected Claire’s credentials too.
Someone had changed the permissions at 9:12 that morning.
Evelyn contacted the building administrator.
The lock opened.
Inside, Daniel’s desk had been cleared.
Two monitors were missing.
A shredder remained warm.
The room smelled of burned paper.
Claire searched the shelves using instructions Melissa had provided.
The second phone was hidden inside a hollowed biography Daniel displayed but had never read.
It rested beside Monarch’s original banking packet.
Evelyn sealed both items in evidence bags.
The phone contained encrypted messages between Daniel and Richard.
Most used coded language.
Weather meant board sentiment.
Travel meant money transfers.
Family dinner meant meetings about Claire.
But the messages sent after the injury were direct.
Daniel: She found Northstar.
Richard: Let her focus on the woman.
Daniel: She found signatures too.
Richard: Manage your wife.
Thirty minutes later:
Daniel: Handled.
Claire stared at the word.
Handled.
That was how her husband described leaving a bruise around her eye.
Richard replied:
Do not create visible problems.
Daniel:
She will not tell anyone.
The certainty hurt more than the message before it.
Daniel knew Claire’s habits.
He knew she avoided scandal.
He knew she protected the Bennett name, the company, and even him.
He believed silence was guaranteed.
The following morning, after Claire visited the clinic, Daniel wrote:
She documented it.
Richard replied:
Then the marriage is no longer useful.
The alliance began collapsing before breakfast.
Richard considered Daniel disposable the moment Claire created evidence outside their control.
That explained the panic in Daniel’s face when he recognized the family seal.
He was not only afraid of Claire.
He was afraid that Richard had already begun shifting blame.
Evelyn scrolled farther.
One message referenced a file called the Chicago meeting.
Claire had never attended such a meeting.
Yet Daniel wrote:
If she resists removal, use the recording.
A digital folder linked to the message contained an audio file.
Claire pressed play.
Her own voice filled the office.
May you like
She heard herself approving the fraud.
👉 Daniel and Richard had created a recording of Claire confessing—but the voice was built from words she had never spoken.
