Chapter 4 - The Clinic Without a Name
That night, Dylan slept in the guest room.
Lucy remained awake until dawn.
She sat in the dark living room, listening to the soft mechanical hum of the building and thinking about every moment when she could have told him the truth.
She could have told him after the first phone call.
She could have told him after seeing Martin.
She could have told him when Chloe entered their kitchen.
Now every hour of silence had become evidence against her.
At seven in the morning, Dylan emerged in yesterday’s clothes.
“I need to ask you something,” he said.
Lucy stood.
“Did you search my father’s financial records?”
“No.”
“Did you know about Vale Medical Trust before the transfer?”
“No.”
“Then how did you find it?”
“I didn’t.”
“You sent money to it.”
“I sent money to a medical facility.”
“Which facility?”
Lucy said nothing.
Dylan’s jaw tightened. “Is my father’s name connected to it?”
“Yes.”
The answer struck him harder than she expected.
He looked toward the windows.
“For years, you told me I should speak about him more. You said silence was making the grief worse.”
“I meant it.”
“And while you were saying that, you were investigating him behind my back?”
“I was not investigating him.”
“Then tell me what you were doing.”
“I’m trying to protect someone.”
“Who?”
She almost said it.
Then her phone vibrated.
A message from Dr. Voss appeared on the screen.
Martin missing from room. Security breach. Call immediately.
Lucy grabbed her coat.
Dylan blocked the doorway.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to leave.”
“You are not walking away from this again.”
“Move.”
“Tell me where the money went.”
“I cannot do this now.”
He stared at her as though she had become a stranger.
“Then perhaps you should stay somewhere else until you can.”
The words silenced them both.
Dylan looked as if he regretted them immediately, but Lucy was already opening the door.
“I’ll return when I can explain everything.”
She drove to St. Alder through heavy snow.
Police cars were parked near the rear entrance.
Dr. Voss met her in Martin’s empty room.
“We found him in the chapel,” she said. “He was confused, but unharmed. Someone triggered the fire alarm and entered his room during the evacuation.”
“What did they take?”
“His journal.”
Lucy closed her eyes.
“That journal contained everything he remembered.”
“Not everything.”
Dr. Voss opened a locked cabinet and removed a sealed envelope.
“He gave me this yesterday. He said it was for Dylan, but only when he was strong enough to understand.”
Inside the envelope was a copy of an old trust amendment.
The original document had been signed thirteen years earlier.
Martin Hale had intended to transfer controlling interest in Hale Meridian to Dylan upon Dylan’s thirtieth birthday.
A handwritten clause delayed the transfer if Martin died under disputed circumstances.
During that delay, temporary control would pass to Chloe.
Lucy read the clause twice.
Dylan had turned thirty nine years ago.
Chloe had controlled the company ever since.
“There’s more,” Dr. Voss said.
She handed Lucy a second page.
It was a letter from Martin to his attorney.
The letter stated that he planned to remove Chloe from all financial authority after discovering unauthorized transfers from the family trust.
The date was three days before the boat accident.
Lucy’s hands went cold.
“Who admitted Martin here?”
“The original file lists a physician who died seven years ago. But we found a secondary authorization form.”
“Whose signature?”
Dr. Voss looked toward the open door.
“Chloe Hale’s.”
Lucy photographed every page.
Then she went to the chapel.
Martin sat in the last row, staring at a stained-glass window.
“I remember the document,” he said before she reached him.
“The trust amendment?”
“The real one.”
Lucy sat beside him.
“The pages Dr. Voss showed me are copies.”
“They changed them after the accident.”
“Who changed them?”
“Chloe had help.”
“From whom?”
Martin shook his head. “Someone Dylan trusts.”
“An attorney?”
“Closer.”
Lucy waited.
Martin’s eyes filled with frustration.
“I remember your wedding photograph.”
“What about it?”
“There was a man standing behind Dylan.”
Lucy thought of the framed photograph in their hallway. Dylan and Lucy leaving the church. Chloe beside them. Business partners, relatives, and friends filling the steps.
“Which man?”
“I don’t know his name.”
“Could you recognize him?”
“Yes.”
Lucy opened the photograph on her phone.
Martin studied each face.
His finger stopped near Dylan’s shoulder.
The man standing there was Aaron Pike, Dylan’s closest friend and the company’s general counsel.
Martin’s breathing changed.
“He was on the boat.”
Lucy left St. Alder with the documents hidden inside her coat.
Halfway to the city, Dylan called.
She answered through the car speaker.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you tonight.”
“Chloe says you accessed restricted company archives.”
“I didn’t.”
“She has security records.”
“Then the records are false.”
“Lucy, I want to believe you.”
The sentence hurt more than an accusation.
“Do you?”
Silence.
She tightened her hands around the steering wheel.
“Come home tonight,” Dylan said. “It’s our anniversary. We will sit down, and you will tell me everything.”
Lucy looked at the envelope on the passenger seat.
“All right.”
When she ended the call, a black vehicle appeared in her mirror.
It remained behind her for twenty miles.
May you like
Then her phone displayed a message from an unknown number.
Bring the documents home, and Martin stays alive.
