Chapter 3
The hospital locked my medical records before anyone could alter them.
Detective Bell requested surveillance footage.
My obstetrician, Dr. Helen Morris, arrived looking disturbed.
“Amelia, the police asked me about the medication given before your emergency.”
“What did they find?”
“An inconsistency.”
Rebecca stood beside my bed.
“What kind?”
Dr. Morris opened the chart.
“You received a sedative I did not order.”
My mouth went dry.
“Who ordered it?”
“That’s the problem. The system shows my credentials.”
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
Grace slept beside me.
I suddenly wanted every stranger out of the room.
“Could that have caused the paralysis?”
Dr. Morris chose her words carefully.
“We don’t yet know what caused your neurological symptoms. Your specialists are still evaluating you. But any unauthorized medication is serious.”
Rebecca asked, “Who administered it?”
“A nurse named Melissa Grant.”
Detective Bell looked at his notes.
“Where is she?”
Dr. Morris hesitated.
“She didn’t report for work today.”
Of course she didn’t.
Police went to her apartment.
Empty.
Her phone was disconnected.
Hospital security footage showed Melissa leaving thirty minutes after my emergency delivery.
She carried a large envelope.
I watched the video from my bed.
“Zoom in.”
The envelope had a logo.
Vance Development.
Rebecca whispered, “That’s our corporate stationery.”
My stomach twisted.
Then another camera showed Melissa entering the employee garage.
Someone waited beside a black SUV.
Julian.
I stopped breathing.
He handed her something.
She gave him the envelope.
Detective Bell turned toward me.
“Did your husband know this nurse?”
“Not that I know of.”
Rebecca’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression hardened.
“What?”
She listened.
Then put the call on speaker.
It was Marcus Chen.
“We traced two of the shell companies.”
“Who owns them?” I asked.
“One is linked to Eleanor.”
My mother-in-law.
“And the other?”
“Cassandra Reed.”
Julian’s mistress.
I laughed once.
It hurt.
“They weren’t even hiding from each other.”
Marcus continued.
“There’s more.”
Of course there was.
“Cassandra was added to our payroll eight months ago.”
“What?”
“Consulting contract.”
“I never approved that.”
“Julian did.”
“For what work?”
“No documented deliverables.”
“How much?”
“Twenty-five thousand dollars a month.”
My husband had been paying his mistress with my company’s money.
But Rebecca suddenly focused on something else.
“Marcus, who processed her onboarding?”
Silence.
Then:
“Eleanor.”
I stared at Rebecca.
“My mother-in-law doesn’t work for Vance Development.”
“No,” Marcus said. “But she used an administrative login.”
“Whose?”
Another pause.
“Yours.”
Someone had copied everything.
My credentials.
My signatures.
My access.
Possibly even my medical information.
Detective Bell asked me to think carefully.
“Who had regular access to your devices?”
“Julian.”
“Anyone else?”
“My assistant, Dana.”
Rebecca frowned.
“Where is Dana?”
I had not seen her since the day before I went into labor.
I called.
Disconnected.
Marcus checked the office.
Dana’s desk had been cleared.
No resignation.
No notice.
Just gone.
Then Rebecca opened the employee emergency database.
Dana’s listed home address matched one of the shell companies receiving stolen funds.
I stared at it.
My assistant had been inside my office for four years.
She knew every password reset.
Every board schedule.
Every legal appointment.
Every weakness.
Then Detective Bell received a message.
Police had found Melissa Grant.
The missing nurse.
She was alive.
And she had immediately asked for protection.
May you like
Her first statement was only seven words.
“Julian paid me to make Amelia helpless.”
