Chapter 10 - MY FATHER’S NAME
My father, Henry Bennett, had built Bennett Medical Systems from a small surgical-supply company into a regional giant.
He had also controlled every room he entered.
I loved him when I was young.
I feared becoming him when I got older.
James found the archived crash paperwork through a retired insurance investigator.
The amended report carried Henry Bennett’s authorization as a “family representative.”
He had requested Maria’s name be removed to “protect a household employee from public harassment.”
That was the official reason.
The investigator remembered something else.
“Your father was furious,” he told me over the phone. “Not about the crash. About what Emma had been looking into.”
My blood chilled.
“Did he mention Grant?”
“He said the company could not survive a scandal.”
There it was.
My father might not have caused Emma’s crash.
But he had helped bury the truth afterward.
I walked into the hospital chapel and sat alone until Maria found me.
“I spent years thinking I failed Emma,” I said.
Maria sat beside me. “We all did.”
“No. I defended Grant when she questioned him. I told her she was exhausted.”
Maria looked at me. “Then stop defending the version of yourself who didn’t know. Protect Lily with what you know now.”
My phone buzzed.
A live alert from the house security system.
Someone had entered through the rear kitchen door.
Police were already stationed outside.
Detective Ortiz called me seconds later.
“We have a problem. Whoever entered used a valid employee code.”
“Whose?”
She hesitated.
“Maria’s.”
Maria stared at me.
“My code was disabled yesterday.”
On the live camera feed, a hooded figure crossed the kitchen.
Then looked directly into the lens.
Grant pulled back the hood.
May you like
He smiled.
And held up Lily’s stuffed rabbit.
