Chapter 9 - WHAT PRESTON KNEW
Preston was alive.
A truck driver found him behind a maintenance shed with a head wound and two broken ribs.
At the hospital, he asked for Mara.
I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THEY WOULD DO TO ELEANOR.
Preston looked smaller in the hospital bed than he had in any expensive suit.
"Tell me."
"Your mother came to me after I got engaged to Bianca. She knew Thorne was using my family's development company to move money. She wanted me to help expose it."
"And?"
"I told Bianca."
Mara went still.
"You what?"
"I thought Bianca would confront her father. I was stupid."
"You were a coward."
"Yes."
Bianca told Senator Thorne.
Thorne sent Victor Saye to Eleanor's apartment.
Preston did not know what happened inside.
He only knew Eleanor suffered a stroke that night.
Mara's hands shook.
"You knew this for four years."
"I knew enough to be ashamed. Not enough to prove anything."
"So you married her."
He looked at Mara.
"Yes."
No excuse.
Good.
Matteo stood near the door, silent.
Preston continued.
"Eleanor hid something in her medical records. She told me before she died. A toxicology note."
Chen obtained the archived hospital file.
The original lab page had been removed.
But a billing attachment named the test.
Mara stared.
"Why would they test that after a stroke?"
The answer arrived from an old nurse Chen located in Vermont.
Eleanor had shown unusual poisoning symptoms.
The attending physician ordered the panel.
Before results came back, Senator Thorne's personal physician took over the case.
Dr. Neil Foster.
The same man now claiming Mara was mentally unstable.
Then Julian called.
"We found Foster."
"Where?"
"At a private airfield."
Matteo asked, "Alive?"
Julian hesitated.
"For now. But he's not alone."
May you like
"Who is with him?"
"Bianca."
