Chapter 4 - THE OTHER BRIDE
Police began looking into Daniel.
What they found changed everything.
His name wasn't Daniel Vale.
Not legally.
His full name was Daniel Mercer.
He had changed it seven years earlier.
Claire stared at the detective.
“Why?”
“We're still investigating.”
Detective Elena Torres slid a photograph across the table.
A woman in her early thirties.
Dark hair.
Bright smile.
Wedding dress.
Claire looked at her.
“Who is she?”
“Rebecca Sloan.”
“Why are you showing me this?”
“She married Daniel Mercer nine years ago.”
Claire's heart stopped.
“What?”
“They divorced fourteen months later.”
“Why?”
“We don't know.”
Torres placed another photograph down.
Different woman.
Different wedding.
Same groom.
“Melissa Grant.”
Claire stared.
“She married him six years ago.”
“What happened to her?”
“She spent eleven months in a psychiatric facility.”
Claire couldn't speak.
“When she came out, most of her assets were gone.”
Rachel whispered, “Oh my God.”
Torres nodded.
“Daniel had medical authority during her hospitalization.”
Claire looked at the photographs again.
“What about Rebecca?”
The detective hesitated.
“She's dead.”
Silence filled the room.
“How?”
“Officially?”
Claire nodded.
“Accidental overdose.”
“And unofficially?”
“We're reopening the file.”
Claire felt Lily's hand slide into hers.
Torres continued.
“There's another connection.”
She showed Claire a photograph of Margaret.
“She wasn't simply helping Daniel.”
“What was she doing?”
“Recruiting.”
Claire frowned.
Torres explained that Margaret had worked for years as an administrator at private rehabilitation facilities.
She understood patient intake procedures.
Guardianship petitions.
Medical proxies.
She knew exactly what paperwork was needed to make a healthy person look unstable on paper.
Then Torres showed Claire the final photograph.
The gray-haired man Lily had described.
Dr. Stephen Warren.
Claire stared.
“That's him?”
Lily nodded immediately.
“Yes.”
Torres leaned back.
“He signed Melissa Grant's commitment paperwork.”
Claire felt ice spread through her chest.
“And mine?”
“We believe he was preparing to.”
The room went quiet.
Claire looked at her daughter.
An eight-year-old had uncovered what multiple adults had missed.
But there was still the ring.
“Detective.”
“Yes?”
“The second wedding ring.”
Torres frowned.
“What about it?”
“Margaret had it.”
“Could it have belonged to Rebecca?”
Claire remembered the design.
Platinum.
Three small diamonds.
She described it.
Torres's face changed.
“What?”
The detective opened Rebecca Sloan's case file.
She turned the laptop around.
There was a photograph taken after Rebecca's death.
On an evidence table sat her jewelry.
One item was missing from the list.
Her wedding ring.
Claire stared at the screen.
Same design.
Same three diamonds.
Rachel covered her mouth.
“Why would Margaret bring a dead woman's wedding ring to Claire's wedding?”
Torres didn't answer immediately.
Then Lily whispered.
“Maybe it wasn't for Mom.”
Everyone looked at her.
Lily's face had gone pale.
“I heard Daniel's mom say something about replacing a ring.”
Claire crouched beside her.
“When?”
“The night before the wedding.”
“What did she say?”
Lily closed her eyes.
“She said…”
Her voice shook.
“Don't make the same mistake you made with Rebecca.”
Claire looked at Detective Torres.
May you like
The detective was already reaching for her phone.
Because Rebecca's death was no longer beginning to look accidental.
