Claire POV
The first thing Emma does is cut her hair.
Claire sits in a salon chair in Boston with a stylist who doesn't ask questions. Her long brown hair falls to the floor in chunks. The stylist works quickly and professionally. When she's done, Claire barely recognizes herself. Shorter. Sleeker. Different. The stylist adds highlights. Blonde streaks. It changes everything about her face.
"You look like a different person," the stylist says, smiling at her work.
Claire nods because it's true. She does look different. She looks like someone who got a promotion. Someone who got her life together. Someone who could walk into a boardroom and make decisions.
She looks like Ms. Peterson.
Over the next three months, Emma transforms her completely. Not just her appearance but her entire life. They rent an office space in downtown Boston. Nothing fancy but professional. Glass doors. Real furniture. Emma hires actors to pretend to be her employees. They answer phones when Claire has meetings. They sit at desks and look busy.
But the real work is the consulting.
Emma connects Claire with actual clients. Real companies with real problems. Small businesses that need their systems fixed. And Claire does what she's always been good at. She walks into their operations. She sees what's broken. She fixes it. She charges them real money. She builds a real track record.
The first client is a logistics company losing thousands monthly to inefficient warehouse systems. Claire analyzes their data for a week. She identifies seventeen points of failure. She presents a plan. They implement it. Two weeks later, they're saving eight thousand dollars a month.
They recommend her to another client.
Then another.
By month two, Ms. Peterson has four successful contracts. Case studies. References. Testimonials from real business owners who will swear that she's brilliant. The fake identity becomes real because the work is real.
Emma also handles the documents.
New driver's license. Birth certificate. References from Harvard Business School. A fake LinkedIn profile with two hundred connections, all real business people who Emma somehow convinced to endorse her. A history that goes back ten years. A woman who went to the right schools, worked at the right companies, built the right reputation.
It's all lies but it's all provable.
Claire studies for hours every day. She learns about supply chain management she already knew but deepens her expertise. She learns about the fashion industry's specific challenges. She learns about Walsh Industries specifically. Every board member. Every investor. Every problem the company is facing.
She becomes an expert on how to destroy them.
By month three, she doesn't recognize herself anymore.
She stands in front of the mirror in her Boston apartment and sees a stranger. This woman wears blazers and watches that cost more than her car used to. This woman has her hair styled professionally. This woman wears glasses that make her look intelligent and serious. This woman carries herself like she belongs in rooms full of powerful people.
This woman is not Claire Matthews.
Claire Matthews is the girl who went to prison. Claire Matthews is the woman who served coffee at two in the morning. Claire Matthews is the mother who had to give up her daughter. Claire Matthews is erased.
Emma appears in the doorway of the bedroom. She's holding an iPad with a video playing. It's Sebastian. He's at some charity event in New York. He looks tired. Older. Like the weight of the world is finally catching up with him. He's with a blonde woman in a red dress. His second wife, probably.
Claire watches him on the screen and feels nothing. Or maybe she feels everything. She can't tell anymore.
"He has no idea what's coming," Emma says, watching her watch him.
"Good," Claire says. She sounds like a stranger too. Her voice is different. More controlled. Less desperate.
Emma walks over and puts a hand on her shoulder. "In two weeks, we're going to contact Walsh Industries. We're going to tell them about a brilliant consultant who can fix their failing company. We're going to make them an offer they can't refuse. And then you're going to walk in there and dismantle everything he built. Are you ready?"
Claire looks at the stranger in the mirror. She thinks about Sophia. Three months and she hasn't heard her daughter's voice. Emma made her promise. No contact. No emails. No photos. Complete disappearance. Sophia doesn't know her mother is coming back. Margaret probably told her that her mommy is gone forever.
Claire can live with that. Claire can live with anything if it means Sebastian understands what he took from her.
"I'm ready," she says.
Emma smiles. "Good. Because I just got off the phone with someone very important. Someone who's been waiting for this moment as long as you have. They want to meet you before you go to New York. They want to make sure you understand what you're walking into."
Claire turns away from the mirror. "Who?"
"Someone from your past," Emma says. "Someone who's been fighting this battle longer than you. Someone who's been planning this for years. They're coming to Boston tomorrow."
"Who?" Claire asks again, but Emma is already walking out of the room.
That night, Claire doesn't sleep. She sits on her bed in her expensive Boston apartment with her new identity and her new life and she thinks about Sophia. She pulls up the photos Margaret sent her. Sophia at two years old. Sophia at two and a half. Sophia at three. Each photo shows a girl who looks more like Sebastian and less like the baby Claire remembers.
She won't let herself think about what her daughter looks like now. She won't let herself imagine what she's forgotten about her mother's face.
The next morning, Emma brings a man to the apartment.
He's in his fifties. Expensive suit. Serious expression. He looks at Claire like he's judging whether she can actually do this.
"Ms. Matthews," he says, not using her fake name. "I'm David. I'm the one who hired you."
Claire's hands shake. She finally gets to know who's been pulling the strings.
"I was the CEO of Marchant Fashion Group when you worked there," David says. "I knew you were innocent. I knew Sebastian had framed you. But I was a coward. I chose my job over your life. I chose the Walsh family investment over loyalty to you. I have lived with that choice every single day for three years."
He walks closer to her.
"So I decided to do something about it. I found Emma. I told her what happened. And we made a plan. A plan to destroy the man who destroyed you. A plan to expose him. A plan to make him understand that you can't frame an innocent woman and just move on with your life. There are consequences for that."
Claire can barely breathe. "You want revenge too."
"I want justice," David says. "But since real justice isn't coming, yes. I want revenge. I want him to feel what you felt. I want his world to fall apart. And I want you to be the one to make it happen. Can you do that?"
Claire thinks about Sebastian. She thinks about the courtroom. She thinks about the handcuffs. She thinks about prison. She thinks about three years of nothing.
"Yes," she says. "I can do that."
David nods. He pulls out a folder. Inside is a list. Names. Dates. Evidence of corruption at Walsh Industries going back years. Evidence that Sebastian has been hiding, falsifying documents, bribing board members.
Evidence that will destroy him.
"When you get in there," David says, "you find this stuff. You document it. You present it to the board. And you watch as everything he built comes down. You understand?"
"I understand," Claire says.
David leaves her with the folder and walks out.
Claire opens it and reads. As she reads, she realizes something terrifying and wonderful at the same time.
She's not just a consultant going in to fix a company.
She's a weapon.
She's been loaded and aimed and she's about to go off.
And nothing is going to stop her from destroying Sebastian Walsh completely.