Chapter 5 - THE SECOND PLAN
By sunrise, Oliver was awake.
He looked tiny beneath the hospital blankets, clutching a stuffed dinosaur a nurse had given him.
Ryan sat on the edge of the bed.
“Hey, buddy.”
Oliver blinked.
“Daddy.”
Ryan swallowed hard.
“I’m right here.”
“Grandma mad?”
Ryan and Maya exchanged a look.
Maya leaned closer.
“No, sweetheart. You don’t need to worry about Grandma.”
Oliver’s small brow tightened.
“She told Mommy bad.”
Maya froze.
Ryan’s voice remained gentle.
“What did Grandma say?”
Oliver looked toward the doorway.
As if afraid Evelyn might appear.
“She said Mommy go away.”
Ryan felt something cold move through him.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Maya covered her mouth.
Oliver continued.
“Grandma said I live big house.”
The Whitmore estate.
Ryan carefully kissed his son’s forehead.
“You’re staying with Mommy and Daddy.”
Oliver nodded.
Then whispered,
“She put blue thing in bag.”
Ryan shut his eyes.
Even Oliver had seen it.
Later that morning, Graham Price sat in an interrogation room across from Detective Ortiz.
Ryan and Maya watched through a glass partition with permission from investigators.
Price looked twenty years older than the man Ryan had known.
His tie was gone.
His hands shook.
Ortiz placed the custody petition in front of him.
“Who instructed you to prepare this?”
“Evelyn Whitmore.”
“Did Ryan Whitmore authorize it?”
“No.”
“Did Maya Whitmore?”
“No.”
“How did you obtain Ryan’s electronic signature?”
Price looked at the table.
“Evelyn gave me access credentials.”
Ryan’s jaw tightened.
Ortiz continued.
“What was the purpose of the filing?”
“To create legal grounds for emergency guardianship.”
“Based on what evidence?”
“Evidence Evelyn intended to create.”
Maya stopped breathing.
Ortiz leaned forward.
“Explain.”
Price rubbed his forehead.
“She wanted recordings of Maya appearing violent.”
“Did she tell you how she intended to obtain them?”
“No.”
He hesitated.
“Not exactly.”
Ortiz saw it.
“What did she tell you?”
“She said pressure makes people reveal themselves.”
Maya looked away.
Ryan didn’t.
“What was the second plan?” Ortiz asked.
Price’s hands began shaking harder.
“If Maya wouldn’t sign the voluntary guardianship agreement, Evelyn wanted the police called.”
“For what?”
“Assault.”
“Whose assault?”
Price swallowed.
“Evelyn planned to claim Maya attacked her.”
Ryan whispered, “She was going to frame her.”
Price continued.
“There were supposed to be witnesses.”
Ortiz frowned.
“Who?”
“Household employees.”
“Were they paid?”
“Some.”
“How many?”
Price named four.
Ryan knew every one of them.
A driver.
A housekeeper.
A private nurse.
A security guard.
People who smiled at Maya every week.
Ortiz placed another document down.
“What is this?”
Price looked at it.
Then closed his eyes.
“A draft criminal complaint.”
Maya stared through the glass.
Her name was already printed across the top.
Ortiz asked the final question.
“What would happen after Maya’s arrest?”
Price answered quietly.
“Evelyn would petition for temporary custody while Ryan was pressured to remove Maya from the family home.”
Ryan’s hands went cold.
“Pressured how?” Ortiz asked.
Price didn’t answer.
Ortiz repeated herself.
Finally he said,
“Evelyn had evidence against Ryan too.”
Ryan frowned.
“What evidence?”
Price looked directly toward the observation glass.
As if he knew Ryan stood behind it.
May you like
“Enough to remove both parents.”
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