The Clinic by the Lake
Chapter 08 - The Clinic by the Lake
The photograph led to Briar Lake Recovery Center.
The director said no patient named Claire Grant or Claire Vale had ever stayed there.
Olivia showed her mother’s picture.
A nurse recognized her as “Anna Rose,” a long-term patient treated for memory loss after a car accident.
Anna disappeared six months earlier.
Her room had been emptied by a man from Sterling Hotels.
Security footage showed Ethan entering through the rear door.
Olivia watched her husband guide Claire toward a black SUV.
Claire appeared alive but confused.
Ethan had known Olivia’s mother survived.
He had never told her.
Detective Ortiz arrested Ethan before sunset.
He claimed he moved Claire to protect her from Vanessa.
“Where is she now?” Olivia asked through the interview-room glass.
Ethan requested a deal.
He would reveal Claire’s location if Olivia signed temporary voting authority to save Sterling Hotels.
Olivia refused.
“You do not trade a mother back to her daughter.”
Ethan smiled sadly.
“Then the board will liquidate the company, and twelve thousand people will blame you.”
Olivia had spent years fearing that saying no made her selfish.
Now she understood the threat.
Ethan wanted her to carry responsibility for damage he had designed.
Ortiz traced the SUV to an abandoned lakeside conference center owned by Vanessa’s shell company.
Police found medical supplies, surveillance equipment, and recent food.
Claire was gone.
On the wall, she had written four numbers in charcoal.
Olivia recognized them as hotel room numbers.
The last was 914.
Sterling Grand did not have a Room 914.
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But the ninth floor had once contained Richard Sterling’s private apartment behind Room 912.
Claire was inside the hotel Ethan claimed he needed to save.
