Chapter 10 - The Name on the Call Record|
Nathan did not confront Vanessa immediately.
For the first time in his life, he understood the danger of reacting before he knew the whole truth.
He asked Dr. Pierce to send the call record to Evelyn Brooks and instructed Martin to preserve every document connected to Whitmore Capital. Then he waited until the following morning to contact Vanessa.
She agreed to meet him at a private restaurant near Uptown Charlotte.
When Nathan arrived, she was already seated. She wore a cream blouse, a diamond bracelet, and the expression of a woman who believed the worst had passed.
“You look terrible,” she said.
“My wife nearly died.”
“I know.”
“No, Vanessa. You know she was in the hospital. You don't know what it means to sit outside an operating room wondering whether someone you love will ever open her eyes again.”
Vanessa's expression tightened.
“Are you saying you love her?”
Nathan looked at her.
“I am saying I failed her.”
He placed a copy of the call record on the table.
Vanessa glanced at it.
Her fingers froze.
“What is this?”
“A record of the call that canceled my mother's transfer.”
“I have never seen it.”
“Your father’s office placed the call. The caller used your name.”
Vanessa pushed the paper away.
“I was eight years old.”
“Were you with your father that night?”
“I don't remember.”
“Try.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You don't get to interrogate me because your marriage is falling apart.”
“My marriage is falling apart because I let it happen. This has nothing to do with that.”
He leaned forward.
“Did your father ask you to sign hospital paperwork when you were a child?”
Vanessa stared at him.
For several seconds, she looked genuinely frightened.
Then she recovered.
“He used to take me to business meetings. I signed things when he told me to. I was a child.”
“Did he tell you what you were signing?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you what happened to my mother?”
Vanessa rose.
“I won't be part of this.”
Nathan did not stop her.
As she reached the door, he spoke.
“Did you know Claire was investigating your father?”
Vanessa turned.
“Claire knows nothing about the world she married into.”
Nathan's expression hardened.
“Then why are you afraid of what she found?”
Vanessa left without answering.
Nathan returned to the hospital and found Evelyn waiting outside Claire's room.
“She is making progress,” Evelyn told him. “The doctors are cautiously optimistic.”
He exhaled.
“Can I see her?”
“Not today.”
He nodded.
Evelyn watched him for a moment.
“You handled Vanessa's interview without making threats?”
“I asked questions.”
“That is an improvement.”
Nathan almost smiled, but the expression disappeared when Evelyn opened her briefcase.
“I found something in Claire's private correspondence that she authorized me to share.”
She handed him a photocopy of an email sent to Claire three days before the gala.
The sender was a former accountant at Whitmore Capital.
Mrs. Mercer, your husband's father was not the only person involved in the medical foundation. Charles Whitmore used the foundation to conceal payments. Martin Sloan handled the accounts. Someone inside the hospital altered the transfer records.
Below the message was another sentence.
If you want to know who ordered the cancellation, look at the emergency authorization.
Nathan frowned.
“What emergency authorization?”
Evelyn pointed to an attachment.
It was a hospital form signed by Daniel Mercer, Charles Whitmore, and an unnamed representative of the foundation.
The representative's signature had been obscured in the copy.
“Where is the original?” Nathan asked.
“Claire believes it is in the foundation's archived files.”
“Then we find it.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Your wife specifically asked that we not involve you in the investigation until she was stable.”
Nathan took a breath.
“Then I will wait until she tells me otherwise.”
Evelyn seemed surprised.
“Good.”
She turned to leave, then stopped.
“There is one more thing.”
“What?”
“Claire didn't discover the medical records by accident. She was contacted by someone who claimed to have worked for your mother.”
Nathan frowned.
“Who?”
Evelyn opened another document.
The sender's name was Margaret Ellis, a former hospital administrator who had retired to South Carolina.
“She contacted Claire because she believed Rose's death had been misrepresented.”
Nathan stared at the name.
“Where is she now?”
“Missing.”
The word seemed to hang in the corridor.
“When?”
“Two days before Claire was taken to the hospital.”
Nathan's phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent a photograph.
It showed Margaret Ellis standing outside a small house.
May you like
On the back of the photograph was a handwritten message.
Ask Vanessa what she remembers about the woman who signed the final authorization.
