Chapter 4 - THE DOCTOR WHO NEVER SAW ME
The report said I suffered from paranoid delusions, emotional instability, and "dangerous fixation on inherited status."
It was signed by Dr. Malcolm Reeve.
I had never met him.
Julian had filed it with the emergency custody request after I left the house.
Harrison read the timestamp.
"Prepared yesterday."
So this was not panic.
It was preparation.
I looked at Julian across the ballroom.
He had expected me to leave.
He had expected me to be broke.
And he had already built a story about why Maya should stay behind.
Gideon said, "Do you want me to handle it?"
I looked at him.
For six years, I had run from that sentence.
This time I answered differently.
"No. I want your lawyers. I make the decisions."
A faint smile touched his face.
"Good."
We left the gala before dessert.
By midnight, my attorney, Rachel Kim, had found that Dr. Reeve worked through a private clinic partly funded by Victoria Vance's foundation.
At 12:17 a.m., she found more.
The report used language copied from another patient's file.
At 12:40, Dr. Reeve's office denied treating me.
At 1:05, someone broke into the clinic's records room.
The security camera caught a woman in a hood.
Rachel froze the frame.
Genevieve.
I stared at the screen.
"Why would she risk that?"
Harrison said, "Because there's something in the original file."
The police recovered a half-burned folder from a dumpster behind the clinic.
Inside was not my name.
It was Maya's.
A pediatric behavioral evaluation.
It claimed my daughter displayed aggression, lying, and attachment disorder.
The date was six months earlier.
I had never authorized it.
Then Rachel found the referral signature.
Julian Vance.
I could barely speak.
"He was building a case against his own daughter."
Rachel looked grim.
"Not against her. Around her."
She turned the page.
May you like
Proposed guardian in the event both parents were deemed unfit:
Victoria Vance.
