Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS DEAD
Detective Lena Ortiz wanted warrants.
Adrian wanted doors opened.
For once, money did not make the decision faster.
By midnight, Clara and Mia were moved to a guarded pediatric floor for evaluation. DNA samples were taken. Clara refused to sleep unless Adrian stayed where she could see him.
“Promise you won’t disappear,” she said.
“I promise.”
“You promised before.”
He had no answer for that.
At 1:14 a.m., Marcus arrived with information pulled from Ravenwood’s public records.
“There’s no Elise Harper admitted there.”
Adrian’s hope collapsed.
Marcus continued. “But there is an Eleanor Hart. Female, thirty-four. Admitted seventeen months ago after a breakdown. No visitors except an attorney named Charles Mercer.”
Adrian stood.
Elise was thirty-four.
Her middle name was Eleanor.
Detective Ortiz obtained an emergency court order before dawn.
Ravenwood looked less like a hospital than a country club: stone walls, quiet gardens, tinted windows.
The director met them in the lobby with a lawyer.
“We cannot confirm any patient identity without—”
Ortiz held up the order.
“Today you can.”
Room 417 was locked from the outside.
Adrian’s hand shook when the nurse opened it.
The woman by the window was painfully thin. Her hair had been cut short. A scar crossed her temple.
But Adrian knew her before she turned.
“Elise.”
Her eyes widened.
For several seconds, she simply stared.
Then she whispered, “You’re real.”
Adrian crossed the room.
Elise backed away.
“No. No, you can’t be here. They said you signed the papers.”
“What papers?”
“The guardianship. The commitment. The order keeping my children from me.”
“I signed nothing.”
Elise began to cry.
Then the fire alarm screamed.
A nurse ran past the open door shouting, “Smoke in the records wing!”
May you like
Marcus looked at Adrian.
“Someone knew we were coming.”
