Chapter 11 - The Witness at the Hospital
Olivia met us at a diner off Route 17.
She wore her work scrubs beneath an oversized coat and kept turning her coffee cup without drinking it.
"I heard Mom threaten him," she said before sitting down. "I stood outside Dad's hospital room. She said if he exposed Derek, she'd make sure Caroline never got past the front desk again."
I looked at my sister.
"You knew that?"
"I was twenty-nine and terrified of losing the only family I had. That's not an excuse."
Samuel placed a recorder on the table and asked permission to document the conversation.
Olivia nodded.
She described Patricia arriving with a signature stamp and a document folder.
She saw Derek bring a notary, but the notary never entered Dad's room.
"Mom told him Dad had already signed," she said. "I knew it was wrong. I left."
"Why photograph the hallway?" Samuel asked.
"Because I wanted proof I wasn't imagining it."
For years, I'd thought Olivia didn't care.
Hearing her now, I realized she had cared enough to be frightened and not enough to act.
I didn't know how to forgive that.
I wasn't ready to try.
"Will you give a sworn statement?" Samuel asked.
She looked at me instead of him.
"If I do, Derek will come after me."
"He's already coming after everyone," I said.
She nodded and agreed to meet Samuel the next morning.
When she got up, her phone flashed with a message.
She turned it over too late.
I saw the sender: DEREK.
And three words beneath his name.
May you like
WE HAVE LUCY.
Lucy was Olivia's twelve-year-old daughter.
