Chapter 4 - THE FAMILY WITH TWO SETS OF DEATH CERTIFICATES
Dr. Harris immediately contacted hospital legal counsel.
Elena contacted Maya.
She did not tell Maya everything.
Only enough.
"Freeze every payment connected to Northhaven Clinical Holdings, Marrowridge Capital and Vesper Patient Services."
Maya inhaled sharply.
"Immediately?"
"Immediately."
"Julian can override."
"Not while he's hospitalized."
"What if another board member does?"
"Then send me the name."
Elena hung up.
Julian watched her.
"You have no idea what you've just done."
"That's becoming your favorite sentence."
"You froze Vesper?"
"Yes."
He looked genuinely horrified.
"Turn it back on."
"No."
"Elena, people will die."
The words hit differently.
"What people?"
Julian said nothing.
Elena moved closer.
"What people, Julian?"
He looked toward Dr. Harris.
The surgeon folded his arms.
"If patient care depends on those accounts, Mrs. Vance needs to know."
Julian laughed bitterly.
"You think this is hospital financing?"
Elena waited.
Finally he whispered, "My family has been paying them for thirty-one years."
"For what?"
"Keeping people hidden."
Serena spoke from the doorway.
"Who?"
Julian's jaw tightened.
"People the family couldn't allow to exist publicly."
Elena felt nauseated.
"What does that mean?"
"Scandals. Addictions. illnesses. children."
"Children?"
Julian shut his eyes.
"My grandfather built the system."
Elena had met Julian's grandfather only once before his death.
Charles Vance had been ninety-one and almost blind.
The public remembered him as a brilliant industrialist and generous philanthropist.
Hospitals carried his name.
Universities displayed his portrait.
Julian's explanation transformed that legacy into something grotesque.
Charles had believed the family's reputation was more valuable than individual family members.
When someone became inconvenient, unstable, seriously ill or legally dangerous, the family created a public ending.
A death.
A disappearance.
Sometimes an overseas relocation.
Then the person was moved into private care facilities owned through layers of shell companies.
"Daniel found out," Julian said.
"He discovered records when he was nineteen."
Elena slowly sat down.
"The boating accident."
"Was staged."
"By your father?"
Julian did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Serena looked sick.
"And you helped?"
"I was twenty-one."
"That isn't an answer."
Julian looked at Elena.
"I helped Daniel after."
Elena glanced at the records.
"You secretly paid for his treatment."
"Yes."
"Then why is his file hidden in your bag?"
"Because three weeks ago I learned his records had been altered."
"Altered how?"
"His death date changed."
Elena frowned.
"What death date?"
"The private one."
Julian swallowed.
"According to Vesper, Daniel died eight years ago."
Dr. Harris nodded slowly.
"That matches the final transfer."
Julian looked at him.
"No."
Everyone became silent.
Julian's voice broke slightly.
"I spoke to Daniel last year."
Elena stared.
"You spoke to him?"
"On the phone."
"You're saying he's alive?"
"I don't know."
He turned toward the metal box.
"That's what I was trying to find out."
Elena almost believed him.
Then she remembered Serena.
The stolen money.
The lies.
"You expect me to believe you were secretly investigating your family while having an affair and stealing company funds?"
Julian looked at Serena.
"She wasn't just my mistress."
Serena went rigid.
Elena turned.
Julian continued.
"She works for them."
Serena whispered, "Don't."
Elena's gaze moved from one to the other.
"Works for whom?"
Julian answered.
May you like
"Vesper."
Serena ran.
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