Chapter 4 - RACHEL WAKES
Rachel opened her eyes thirty-one hours after arriving at the hospital.
Her first word was Emma’s name.
Her second was Jonathan’s.
Rebecca was beside the bed.
“Emma is safe.”
Rachel tried sitting up.
“The twins?”
“Alive.”
Rachel began crying.
Rebecca waited.
Then said—
“Jonathan is missing.”
Rachel stared at her.
“He called police from the room in your house.”
Rachel’s eyes widened.
“Then he’s alive.”
“He was.”
Rachel turned away.
Rebecca placed the journal on the table.
“We found this.”
Rachel’s face tightened.
“Then you know.”
“I know part of it.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“I need the rest.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
Eight years earlier, Rachel had worked in the accounting division of the Hayes Medical Foundation.
She was twenty-four.
Engaged to Jonathan.
Pregnant.
And trusted the Hayes family completely.
Then she noticed financial transfers.
Millions moving from charitable medical programs into shell companies.
She initially believed it was an accounting mistake.
Then she discovered signatures.
Approvals.
Payments to nonexistent rural clinics.
She brought the information to someone she trusted.
Charles Hayes.
Jonathan’s father.
Rebecca interrupted.
“You told Charles first?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He told me he would investigate.”
Rachel laughed bitterly.
“Two days later, everything began.”
Photographs appeared.
Threats.
A staged break-in.
Evidence pointing toward Jonathan.
Then the car attack.
Rachel disappeared.
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
Rachel looked at Rebecca.
“Because one of the men who ran me off the road was wearing a sheriff’s deputy jacket.”
Rebecca went still.
Rachel spent eight years believing corruption went far beyond the Hayes family.
Then Jonathan found her.
He produced evidence proving he had never approved the transfer that supposedly funded the attack.
His electronic signature had been copied.
Eventually, Rachel believed him.
“Who did Jonathan suspect?”
Rachel hesitated.
“Grant.”
“Emma says Grant visited your house.”
“He did.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
Not the night Rachel collapsed.
Grant had found them.
But rather than threatening Rachel, he claimed he wanted to help.
He said he had spent years suspecting their father.
Rebecca frowned.
“Charles?”
Rachel nodded.
“Grant said Jonathan was in danger.”
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because eight years ago Grant was the last person who saw me before the car attack.”
Rebecca sat back.
“So either Grant was warning you about Charles—”
“Or Charles was using Grant.”
Rachel stared at the ceiling.
“There was another person.”
Rebecca waited.
“A woman named Celeste Ward.”
Grant’s former wife.
She had worked at the Hayes Foundation.
She had vanished seven years earlier.
Officially, she moved overseas.
Rachel never believed it.
“Jonathan found a transfer in Celeste’s name,” Rachel continued.
“He thought she might be alive.”
“Is that who he was going to meet?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel looked suddenly frightened.
“He didn’t tell me because he thought someone might be watching the house.”
Rebecca placed the brass key in a plastic evidence bag on the table.
“What does this open?”
Rachel stared at it.
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca frowned.
“You wrote that the key mattered.”
“Jonathan gave it to me.”
“When?”
“The night before he disappeared.”
“What did he say?”
Rachel swallowed.
“He said if he didn’t come back, give it to Emma.”
Rebecca looked toward the door.
“To a seven-year-old?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I asked the same thing.”
May you like
Rachel’s eyes filled with fear.
“He said Emma would know where it belonged.”
