Chapter 4 - The Paper TrailFor the next five days, I remained under 24-hour police protection in the hospital’s high-security wing. The physical wounds—the severe skin abrasions on my neck, the muscle deep-tissue bruising, and the hydration depletion—began to heal under proper care.
With the help of Detective Cruz, I was introduced to Sarah Lin, a high-powered criminal defense attorney who specialized in domestic abuse and financial fraud cases.
Sarah sat at the foot of my bed, spreading out dozens of financial documents, bank transfers, and medical affidavits across the blanket.
"Hannah," Sarah said, her voice sharp and precise. "Brandon’s defense team is realizing they are backed into a corner. The audio files from the phone have been fully validated by forensic audio experts. We have Brandon on tape pouring water over your head, laughing while you suffocated, and explicit statements from Evelyn stating: 'Once the judge sees her covered in mud, the trust money is ours.'"
"Are they trying to make a plea deal?" I asked, holding a warm cup of herbal tea.
"They tried," Sarah snorted in contempt. "Brandon’s lawyer offered to have Brandon plead guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment in exchange for probation and full joint custody of the baby."
"Never," I said, my voice turning into solid iron. "He will never lay a finger on my child."
"Don't worry," Sarah smiled grimly. "I threw their deal in the trash. But there’s something else you need to know. We subpoenaed Brandon’s personal laptop and bank statements."
She pulled out a printed bank ledger highlighting several large, regular payments made over the past eighteen months to a private medical practice in town—Dr. Arthur Pendelton.
"Dr. Pendelton was your primary obstetrician, right?" Sarah asked.
"Yes," I nodded. "Brandon insisted I see him. Every time I told Dr. Pendelton that I was feeling dizzy or experiencing strange memory lapses, he told me it was just pregnancy hormones and wrote a note in my file suggesting I was emotionally unstable."
"Pendelton was being paid twenty thousand dollars a month under the table through a shell company registered to Brandon’s sister, Mara," Sarah revealed. "Pendelton was deliberately falsifying your psychiatric evaluations to build a paper trail for the probate court."
A cold shudder ran down my spine. The corruption ran far deeper than just Brandon’s immediate family. It was an entire network of greedy, ruthless people working in unison to tear my life apart.
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"Where is Dr. Pendelton now?" I asked.
Sarah grinned coldly. "He was arrested two hours ago at his clinic by federal medical fraud investigators. And he’s already singing like a canary to avoid twenty years in federal prison."
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