Chapter 13 - THE DOCTOR WHO WROTE MY ENDING
Dr. Lillian Vale had an excellent reputation, a private practice in Geneva, and a bedside manner so gentle that I hadn't questioned the pills she prescribed.
I should have.
After Julian vanished, I'd stopped sleeping. Mercer insisted I see a specialist. Vale told me I was exhausted, then arranged a private admission. Within days I could barely follow a conversation. My requests to go home were dismissed as symptoms of my illness.
I had escaped only because a young nurse named Elise noticed the dosage changes and called Naomi using a phone I could borrow. Elise also helped me obtain an independent medical examination and leave the clinic legally.
Now Julian was telling me Vale had appeared at the place where he'd been held.
Quinn made calls across jurisdictions while Naomi gathered my Swiss records. No detective could arrest an overseas physician on an accusation alone, but evidence could cross borders even when rich people preferred it not to.
"Did she threaten you?" Quinn asked Julian.
"She said my mother was 'under control.' She told me Maya would be shipped away as soon as I cooperated."
"Cooperated with what?"
"Signing a statement that the foundation records were my mother's private investments. They wanted her blamed for the missing money."
I sat down hard.
That was the final shape of the scheme. If the theft surfaced, I would be the criminal, Julian the unreliable dead man, and Maya the forgotten heiress unable to speak for herself.
"I signed nothing," Julian said. "I kept hoping you'd come."
"I did," I whispered. "Not fast enough, but I did."
Naomi appeared at the doorway with a court update. Vanessa's lawyers were demanding that Maya be returned to her before Julian's identity could be established in a formal proceeding.
"Surely no judge would do that now," I said.
"The hearing is tomorrow morning. They have the Swiss doctor's report and a copy of your supposed death certificate."
May you like
Julian struggled to sit upright.
"Then wheel me into that courtroom," he said. "I want to watch my wife explain why she's burying two living people."
