Chapter 2 - The Doctor Who Never Examined Her
Dr. Adrian Wells greeted Claire with a careful smile.
He asked about stress, memory loss, and anger. Yet he seemed more interested in Daniel’s answers than hers. Whenever Claire denied a symptom, Daniel described an incident she could not remember.
“She becomes aggressive after sunset,” he said.
“I have never been aggressive,” Claire replied.
Dr. Wells wrote something down.
Evelyn sat near the window, twisting a tissue between her fingers.
“We only want her safe.”
After twenty minutes, Dr. Wells recommended observation, medication, and a temporary reduction in responsibility.
“You have not run any tests,” Claire said.
“Stress-related disorders are often identified through behavioral patterns.”
“Patterns described by my husband.”
Daniel reached for her hand. Claire pulled away.
The doctor’s expression hardened for only a second.
That evening, Claire called her regular physician and asked for a full medical examination. The results showed no neurological condition, no obvious cause of memory loss, and no reason for sudden behavioral changes.
Daniel appeared relieved when she told him.
“Then it must be stress.”
But Claire noticed something else.
He did not ask to see the results.
She began recording her days in a private notebook. She wrote down every meal, every conversation, and every medication she took. After two weeks, a pattern emerged. Her memory gaps happened only after she drank the evening tea Evelyn prepared.
Claire stopped drinking it.
The gaps stopped.
She did not confront them. Instead, she poured the tea into sealed glass containers and placed them inside a locked refrigerator in her private office.
Three days later, the containers disappeared.
Only four people had access to that office: Claire, Daniel, Martin Vale, and her executive assistant, Priya Shah.
Claire trusted Priya completely. She trusted Martin almost as much. Daniel knew the security code because he had insisted spouses should not keep secrets.
Claire changed the code.
That night, Daniel stood in the bedroom doorway with his phone in his hand.
“Did you lock me out of your office?”
“I updated security.”
“Why?”
“Because confidential files went missing.”
His face remained calm, but the phone creaked under the pressure of his grip.
“Are you accusing me?”
“I am checking everyone.”
He stepped closer.
“You are becoming suspicious again.”
Claire’s skin went cold.
Again.
The word suggested an established history, a pattern he had already begun describing to others.
The next morning, Claire contacted a private forensic accountant named Naomi Brooks. She gave Naomi copies of the unexplained payments and instructed her to investigate quietly.
Within forty-eight hours, Naomi found that the consulting firms were controlled through shell companies connected to Evelyn’s brother.
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More than four million dollars had already been moved.
And someone had scheduled an emergency board meeting to discuss Claire’s medical fitness.
