Ethan Came Home With a Box of Pastries and a Letter Only His Father Could Read — Then Claire Saw Who Had Signed It
Chapter 3 — Claire Harrison
After Ethan went upstairs, Daniel closed the kitchen door.
The pastries remained untouched.
Claire sat across from him.
“My real name was Claire Harrison until I was twenty-three.”
Daniel frowned.
He knew her maiden name as Claire Weston.
“Weston was my mother’s maiden name.”
“You changed it?”
Claire nodded.
“After I left home.”
Walter Harrison had owned one of the most successful family bakeries in the county.
Harrison & Sons began with one shop.
By the time Claire was a teenager, there were seven.
Her older brother, Andrew, was expected to take over.
Claire wanted nothing to do with it.
“Why?” Daniel asked.
Her answer surprised him.
“Because Andrew died.”
Daniel went quiet.
Claire had told him she was an only child.
Another lie.
Andrew was twenty-six when he died in a car accident.
Afterward, Walter changed.
He became controlling.
Obsessed with keeping the company in the family.
Claire was studying nursing at the time.
Walter demanded that she quit.
He wanted her inside the bakery business.
Claire refused.
They fought constantly.
Then something happened that ended their relationship completely.
“What?” Daniel asked.
Claire looked down.
“He accused me of stealing from the company.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“What was missing?”
Claire answered quietly.
“Almost eighty thousand dollars.”
