Chapter 4 - The Doctor Who Never Called
Everett ran through the rain as the vehicle turned toward the coastal road.
His driver followed in the sedan.
The black vehicle accelerated, but the storm had flooded the lower road. Less than a mile from the house, it slowed behind a fallen branch.
Everett’s driver pulled alongside it.
Everett opened his door before the sedan stopped.
The other driver tried to reverse.
Everett reached the rear door and pulled the handle.
Locked.
Through the glass, Maren lifted one hand.
Her lips formed his name.
Everett struck the window with the metal emergency tool from his car. The glass cracked but held.
The driver of the black vehicle stepped out.
He wore the uniform of the Langford estate security team.
“Mr. Langford, your mother instructed me to move Miss Vale to a private clinic.”
“Open the door.”
“I was told she may be dangerous.”
Maren could barely sit upright.
Everett held out his hand.
“The key.”
The guard looked toward the flooded road.
Everett took one step closer.
“You know who pays the estate security contracts.”
The guard surrendered the key.
Everett opened the door.
Maren fell against him.
She was conscious, but her movements were slow.
“Where is Noah?” he asked.
Her eyes widened.
“He isn’t with you?”
“No.”
“He was in the nursery.”
“When?”
“This morning. Celeste said you had ordered a medical evaluation. She took my phone. When I refused to sign the custody form, Dr. Pierce gave me something for the pain.”
Dr. Pierce had claimed he had not examined her.
Everett helped Maren into his sedan.
“Did he tell you what it was?”
“No. I felt dizzy afterward.”
Everett looked at the security guard.
“Who placed her in the car?”
“Mrs. Langford and Mr. Langford.”
Everett froze.
“There is only one Mr. Langford in that house.”
The guard swallowed.
“He told me he was family.”
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Dark suit. A scar beside his left ear.”
Everett knew someone with that scar.
Silas Langford, his cousin.
Silas served as vice chair of the family foundation and had spent years presenting himself as Everett’s closest ally.
Maren gripped Everett’s sleeve.
“The test is false.”
“I know.”
“I found the real result. I hid it before Celeste came into the room.”
“In the blue room?”
She nodded.
“Beneath the atlas.”
Her eyes closed.
Everett caught her face gently.
“Maren, stay awake.”
“I’m trying.”
“Where is Noah?”
“Celeste said he would be safer with someone who understood what it meant to be a Langford.”
The storm continued beating against the car.
Everett called emergency services and gave them their location. Then he called Gideon.
“Silas is involved.”
There was a pause.
“Are you certain?”
“He helped move Maren.”
Gideon lowered his voice.
“Then we have a larger problem. Silas requested a private meeting with the trust administrator yesterday.”
“What did he ask?”
“He wanted to know whether the secondary beneficiary would gain immediate voting control if Noah were disqualified.”
Everett looked back toward Blackwater House.
“Where is Silas now?”
“He told the staff he was leaving for Boston.”
Everett remembered the figure running through the rain.
Silas had not been leaving.
He had been searching for the original laboratory result.
An ambulance arrived and the medical team assessed Maren. Everett stayed beside her until she was alert and stable.
One of the paramedics asked whether she had recently taken a sedative.
“I don’t know,” Maren said.
Everett handed them the empty glass vial he had found in the black vehicle.
The paramedic examined the label.
“This was prescribed to Celeste Langford.”
Maren looked at Everett.
“She didn’t want me unconscious forever,” she whispered. “She only needed me asleep long enough for the transfer.”
Everett’s phone rang.
It was Gideon.
“We opened part of the trust record,” he said. “The beneficiary transfer was approved from your private account.”
“That’s impossible.”
“The verification code was sent to your personal phone.”
Everett touched the empty pocket where his second phone should have been.
He had left it in his office at Blackwater House before traveling.
Only three people knew the security code.
Maren.
Celeste.
May you like
And the person who had helped him create it when they were teenagers.
Silas.
