Chapter 4
Tomorrow.
Victoria had already written my future.
A breakdown.
A threat.
A hospital order.
Maybe worse.
Nora found a locked drawer.
“I don’t have that key.”
I looked at the desk.
Victoria was arrogant.
Arrogant people hid keys near trophies.
I searched the porcelain flower vase beside the monitor.
Nothing.
The silver letter opener.
Nothing.
Then I saw a framed photo of Marcus as a boy with Victoria’s hand on his shoulder.
The frame felt heavy.
I opened the back.
A brass key slid into my palm.
Nora whispered, “Smart girl.”
The drawer opened.
Inside were letters from Dr. Vale.
Medication schedules.
False psychiatric reports.
And one adoption petition.
My throat closed.
It listed my unborn child as Baby Mercer.
Temporary guardian: Victoria Eleanor Mercer.
Mother: medically incompetent.
Father: emotionally compromised.
Marcus.
She planned to declare him unfit too.
The next document made the room tilt.
A life insurance policy.
On me.
Signed by Marcus.
Except the signature was wrong.
He curled his M.
This one was flat.
“She forged it,” I whispered.
Nora lifted another page.
“Not just yours.”
It was Victoria’s death certificate.
Same signature.
Dr. Adrian Vale.
Attached was a transfer record from the estate accounts to a private recovery facility in Oregon.
Patient name: V.E.M.
Victoria Eleanor Mercer.
She had never died.
She had disappeared into the estate like a ghost, then returned to haunt me into madness.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs.
Nora slammed the drawer shut.
Marcus appeared, breathless, face ashen.
“She ran.”
“Where?”
He looked at the documents in my hands.
Then at the monitors.
His face broke.
“Oh my God.”
I held up the guardianship petition.
“Your mother wasn’t trying to scare me.”
He read it.
“She was trying to take our baby.”
May you like
Then the steel door slammed shut behind him.
And locked.
