Chapter 16 - THE NIGHT JUNE WAS BORN
Elise could barely remain standing.
“What do you mean somebody tried to kill my daughter?”
Rebecca gestured toward the couch.
“Sit.”
“I don’t want to sit.”
“Then hold onto something.”
Rebecca explained.
Eleven years earlier, Elise had delivered June after an emergency C-section.
She remembered almost nothing from that night.
Anesthesia.
Pain.
Jonathan’s hand.
Then waking hours later.
According to Rebecca, a nurse discovered that someone had switched June’s medication order.
A normal infant vitamin injection had been replaced with potassium chloride.
Enough to stop a newborn’s heart.
Elise’s hands began shaking.
“How do you know this?”
“Thomas Keene was at the hospital.”
“Why?”
“Jonathan called him after discovering a suspicious transfer connected to Helena.”
Thomas had noticed Helena’s private security chief enter the maternity wing.
He followed him.
Then intercepted the altered medication before the nurse administered it.
“He saved June.”
Rebecca nodded.
“And Helena buried the incident.”
“Why would she want June dead?”
“Because of the Marlowe trust.”
Rebecca opened another document.
“When Jonathan had a biological child, control of thirty percent of the family voting shares automatically transferred into a protected branch controlled by that child when she turned eighteen.”
Elise stared.
“June owns part of Marlowe Holdings?”
“More than part.”
“How much?”
“By her eighteenth birthday? Potentially fifty-one percent.”
Elise closed her eyes.
Helena had tried to kill a newborn child for control of a company.
Rebecca whispered, “Jonathan found out seven years later.”
“Why didn’t he go to the police?”
“He had suspicion. Not proof.”
“And then he died.”
Rebecca nodded.
Elise looked at the photograph again.
Thomas had saved June.
Suddenly, rescuing him was no longer a moral question.
It was personal.
Rebecca drove with Elise to Westbridge Conservatory.
The concert hall was closed for renovation.
Elise entered the empty auditorium.
“Where did you meet Jonathan?” Rebecca asked.
“Row G. Seat fourteen.”
They found it.
Underneath the seat, taped behind a brass plate, was a narrow key.
Rebecca laughed softly.
“My brother really was dramatic.”
The key opened a maintenance cabinet backstage.
Inside was letter four.
But also something else.
A digital recorder.
Elise pressed play.
Jonathan’s voice filled the room.
“If you found this, Elise, I’m sorry.”
Her eyes closed.
It had been years since she heard his voice so clearly.
“I wanted to tell you everything. But every person who got close to the truth became a target. Your father. Thomas. Samuel. Eventually me.”
A pause.
“Helena is not the head of this operation.”
Elise opened her eyes.
Rebecca stared at the recorder.
Jonathan continued.
“She works for someone.”
Then a sound interrupted the recording.
A door opening.
Jonathan’s voice lowered.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Another man answered.
Elise recognized him instantly.
Sheriff Daniel Reeves.
The recording ended.
Rebecca whispered, “Elise…”
Elise couldn’t speak.
Daniel Reeves had been protecting her.
Sleeping in the guest room at Northbridge after the shooting.
Driving June to school.
Coordinating the investigation.
And Jonathan had secretly recorded him days before his death.
Elise’s phone rang.
Reeves.
She stared at the screen.
Rebecca said, “Don’t answer.”
Elise did.
“Elise?”
She forced her voice steady.
“Yes?”
“We found Thomas.”
Her heart jumped.
“Alive?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
May you like
Then Reeves added:
“But you need to come alone.”
