Chapter 25 - The Last Missing Page
Federal investigators arrived before dawn.
But the original case file was missing one page.
The most important page.
Page 47.
Without it, prosecutors couldn't prove who ordered the false arrest.
Caroline remembered Eleanor's words.
“Inside the original case file.”
She examined the binding.
One corner was thicker than the others.
She carefully opened it.
A folded sheet had been hidden inside the spine.
Page 47.
It contained a handwritten authorization.
Richard Hale.
Twenty-three years earlier.
The signature was undeniable.
But there was something else.
A second signature.
Her father's.
Caroline stared at it.
“Why did he sign?”
Eleanor answered.
“Because Hale told him he would kill me if he didn't.”
Caroline closed her eyes.
For the first time, she understood her father completely.
He had not been innocent.
But he had not been the monster she had imagined either.
May you like
He had chosen fear over truth.
And the consequences had lasted twenty-three years.
