Chapter 5 - the dead mother)
Daniel's mother was named Patricia.
Rebecca knew because she had once asked to see childhood photographs.
Daniel showed her three.
In one, Patricia stood beside a teenage Daniel at a county fair.
Tall.
Blonde.
Elegant even in jeans.
Rebecca remembered joking that Patricia looked like a movie star.
Daniel had gone quiet.
"She died when I was nineteen."
"How?"
"Car accident."
He never discussed her again.
Rebecca went home with Sophie that afternoon because she needed the hidden storage documents.
Daniel's car was gone.
Sophie waited outside with Mia.
Rebecca entered alone.
The basement storage cavity had been emptied.
Of course.
But Daniel had missed something.
Behind the lowest shelf, Rebecca found a business card.
PATRICIA BENNETT
Bennett.
The fake surname from the hospital.
The card listed a private family consulting firm called Bennett Resolution Group.
Rebecca searched it online.
No website.
No current registration.
But an old business filing existed.
Patricia Bennett.
Registered twelve years earlier.
Rebecca stared at the screen.
Daniel's supposedly dead mother had started a company five years after her alleged death.
There was an address.
A condominium complex near the river.
Rebecca drove there.
Sophie argued.
Rebecca went anyway.
Apartment 804.
She knocked.
No answer.
She knocked again.
Locks clicked.
The door opened three inches.
A blonde woman looked out.
Older than in Daniel's photograph.
But unmistakable.
Patricia.
Rebecca's body reacted before her mind did.
She stepped backward.
Patricia looked almost bored.
"So you finally found me."
Rebecca swallowed.
"You're supposed to be dead."
Patricia opened the door wider.
"According to Daniel."
"You were at the hospital."
Patricia's eyes sharpened.
"You spoke to the nurse."
Rebecca said nothing.
Patricia sighed.
"Then we should talk."
Rebecca did not enter.
Patricia smiled.
"Good. At least you have some survival instinct."
"Why did Daniel say you were dead?"
"Because I ruined his first marriage."
Rebecca's pulse changed.
"First marriage?"
Patricia studied her.
"He didn't tell you."
Rebecca felt suddenly cold.
"No."
"Of course he didn't."
"What happened?"
Patricia leaned against the doorframe.
"He married a woman named Claire when he was twenty six."
Rebecca remembered nothing.
No photograph.
No mention.
"Where is she?"
"Alive."
"Did he hurt her?"
Patricia's smile vanished.
"Yes."
Rebecca looked toward the elevator.
Then back.
"How?"
Patricia folded her arms.
"The same way he is hurting you."
Rebecca almost laughed.
"You were helping him."
"I was helping myself."
"By drugging my daughter?"
Patricia flinched.
Barely.
Enough.
"I never touched Mia."
"You told him to make me look dangerous."
Patricia stared.
"So Lena heard that."
Rebecca's anger surged.
"Tell me what this is."
Patricia stepped into the hallway and closed her door behind her.
"Daniel doesn't want your daughter."
The words hit harder than Rebecca expected.
"He wants what happens if you lose her."
"What happens?"
Patricia looked at Rebecca for a long moment.
"You inherited your father's estate last year."
Rebecca frowned.
"Most of it went into Mia's trust."
"Exactly."
Rebecca stopped.
Her father, William Hale, had died eight months earlier.
The trust contained nearly four million dollars.
Rebecca controlled it while Mia was a minor.
If Rebecca died, Adam, Mia's biological father, became trustee.
Daniel received nothing.
Unless.
Rebecca whispered, "Unless Adam loses custody too."
Patricia nodded.
"Daniel needed you declared unfit first."
"Why?"
"Because your father's trust has a clause. If both biological parents are unable to serve, the court can appoint the child's legal guardian as trustee."
Rebecca's knees weakened.
Daniel had begun adoption paperwork two months earlier.
He said it was emotional.
A symbol.
He wanted Mia to know she belonged to him too.
Rebecca had nearly signed.
"Daniel wanted to adopt her."
Patricia nodded.
"Then create a record showing you were medically neglectful."
Rebecca remembered every fall.
Every bruise.
Every time Daniel called her at work.
"He was documenting me."
"He was building a story."
"Why would you help him?"
Patricia looked toward the window at the end of the hallway.
"Because he promised me half."
Rebecca stared at her.
"You tried to steal from a two year old."
Patricia's face hardened.
"Don't pretend inheritance money makes saints. Your father destroyed my husband thirty years ago."
"What?"
Patricia laughed softly.
"There it is. The part Daniel probably doesn't even fully understand."
Rebecca stepped closer.
"What did my father do?"
"He bought our company, stripped it, and left us bankrupt. Daniel's father killed himself six months later."
Rebecca felt a sickening pull.
Daniel had not met her by accident.
"What are you saying?"
Patricia looked directly at her.
"Daniel knew who you were before your first date."
The hallway blurred.
Rebecca remembered the restaurant.
The kindness.
The careful pace.
The words that made her cry.
She has a father. Maybe she needs one more person who loves her.
Scripted.
Maybe all of it.
"How long?"
"Years."
Rebecca whispered, "He planned me."
Patricia's voice softened.
"He planned your money."
Rebecca wanted to strike her.
Instead she asked, "Why are you telling me?"
Patricia's eyes became frightened for the first time.
"Because Daniel changed the plan."
"How?"
"He stopped trying to frame you."
Rebecca waited.
May you like
Patricia continued.
"He started trying to make Mia sick."
