Chapter 12 - The Second Envelope
The police did not search Margaret’s whole house that afternoon. They did not need to.
With the homeowner’s consent from Ethan’s father, Thomas Bennett, they entered the guest bedroom where my belongings were stored and documented the drawer Rosa had photographed.
The pills were fake.
The label was not.
It had been printed using pharmacy-template software found on Ethan’s laptop.
Under the forged note was a second envelope.
Inside were copies of my medical records.
Not just prenatal records.
Therapy notes from five years earlier, after my father died.
I felt exposed in a way the staircase had not managed to make me feel.
“How did they get those?” I asked Lena.
“We’re finding out.”
A sticky note was attached to one page.
USE HISTORY OF PANIC ATTACKS.
Another said:
ASK COLE TO RECOMMEND OBSERVATION AFTER DELIVERY.
My stomach turned.
They had taken the worst week of my life and turned it into a weapon.
Thomas came to see me that evening.
He was sixty-eight, quiet, and usually disappeared whenever Margaret became cruel. For years I had mistaken his silence for kindness.
Now I knew better.
He stood at the foot of my bed looking twenty years older than the last time I saw him.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For which part?”
He flinched.
Fair.
“I didn’t know she would hurt you.”
“But you knew something.”
He sat slowly.
“I knew Ethan was in financial trouble. I knew Margaret was meeting with Carver. I thought they were discussing bankruptcy protection.”
“And the trust?”
His silence answered me.
“You knew.”
“I knew she had asked questions about it.”
I looked away.
Thomas reached into his coat and placed a small external hard drive on the blanket.
“What is that?”
“The backup from the house security system.”
“I thought there were no cameras inside.”
“Margaret thought so too.”
My heart began pounding.
May you like
Thomas swallowed.
“There’s audio from the upstairs hall.”
