Chapter 2 - THE FILE IN LILY'S ROOM
Rachel drove like the highway belonged to her.
Claire sat in the passenger seat still wearing her wedding dress.
Lily was in the back.
Nobody spoke for several minutes.
Claire kept calling home.
No answer.
Then she remembered something.
The security system.
She opened the app.
OFFLINE.
Her stomach twisted.
“Rachel.”
“What?”
“The cameras are down.”
Rachel glanced at her.
“Since when?”
Claire checked.
“Twenty-two minutes ago.”
“That was right after you stopped the ceremony.”
Lily leaned forward.
“Daniel knows the password.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Of course he did.
Daniel knew everything.
Alarm codes.
Bank names.
Passwords she had changed after her husband died.
The location of insurance documents.
The details of the trust.
Claire had called it intimacy.
Now it felt like surveillance.
When they reached the house, the front door was open.
Rachel stopped Claire.
“Wait.”
“My daughter's things are inside.”
“And maybe Daniel is too.”
Rachel called the police.
Claire hated waiting.
Every second felt unbearable.
When officers arrived, they entered first.
The house was empty.
But someone had been there.
Claire knew immediately.
Her office drawers were open.
The safe behind the painting had been unlocked.
Documents covered the floor.
And upstairs, Lily's bedroom had been torn apart.
Her mattress was flipped.
Books lay everywhere.
The closet doors were open.
Lily stood in the doorway.
“He found them.”
Claire turned.
“The notes?”
Lily nodded.
Then she walked toward her dollhouse.
One wall had been ripped off.
Empty.
Lily's face crumpled.
“He found them.”
Claire hugged her.
“It's okay.”
“No, it's not.”
Lily pulled away.
“There was something important.”
“What?”
“A picture.”
Claire stared at her.
“What picture?”
“I found it in Daniel's briefcase.”
Claire's heart pounded.
“Lily, what did you take?”
“A picture of a paper.”
“What paper?”
“It had your name.”
Claire crouched.
“Do you remember what it said?”
“Not all of it.”
“Anything.”
Lily thought hard.
“Medical…”
Claire stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Medical power…”
Rachel looked at Claire.
“Power of attorney?”
Lily nodded quickly.
“Yes.”
Claire felt the room tilt.
A medical power of attorney could allow someone to make medical decisions for another person under certain circumstances.
But Claire had never signed one naming Daniel.
Never.
“Did the paper have my signature?”
“Yes.”
“I didn't sign it.”
Lily looked frightened.
“I know.”
Claire touched her shoulder.
“How?”
“Because your name looked wrong.”
Claire almost cried.
Lily had spent years watching her mother sign school forms.
Birthday cards.
Permission slips.
Checks.
The child knew her handwriting.
“Where is the picture?”
Lily pointed toward her tablet.
Daniel had smashed it.
The screen was shattered.
But Rachel picked it up.
“Maybe the data is still there.”
One of the officers approached.
“Ms. Bennett?”
Claire turned.
“We found something downstairs.”
He led them into the garage.
Inside the trash bin was a half-burned folder.
Most of the papers were destroyed.
But one page survived.
Claire pulled on gloves before touching it.
At the top was the name of a private medical facility.
Hawthorne Behavioral Health Center.
Below that was Claire's full legal name.
And beneath it were three words.
INVOLUNTARY PATIENT INTAKE.
Claire stared.
Rachel whispered, “What the hell?”
Claire couldn't answer.
The officer turned the page over.
There was a handwritten note on the back.
TRANSFER ASSETS AFTER ADMISSION.
Claire felt sick.
Lily hadn't stopped Daniel from stealing her money.
She had stopped something far worse.
May you like
Someone had been preparing to have Claire committed.
And Daniel had planned to control everything while she was locked away.
