Chapter 5 - The Night Emma Pretended to Sleep
Emma stared at the photograph.
“That was the night Grandma gave me the pink medicine.”
Lucas turned toward her.
“What medicine?”
“She said it helped bad dreams.”
“Did you normally take medicine for sleep?”
Emma shook her head.
Lucas felt anger rise through him again.
“What happened after you drank it?”
“I got heavy.”
“Do you remember anything else?”
“I woke up when Vanessa talked.”
The child’s eyes moved toward the dark hotel window.
“What did she say?”
Emma’s breathing changed.
Lucas took both of her hands.
“You are safe.”
“She asked Grandma if Mommy ever woke up.”
Every person in the room became still.
Catherine Hale had died four years earlier after collapsing at home.
The official cause was an undiagnosed heart condition.
Lucas had been in Seattle during the emergency.
Margaret found Catherine unconscious in the master bedroom.
Vanessa had not yet entered their lives publicly.
At least, that was what Lucas believed.
“Why would Vanessa talk about your mother?” he asked.
Emma looked confused.
“She said she had done it once before.”
Lucas’s face lost color.
Detective Moore moved closer.
“Emma, do you remember the exact words?”
The girl squeezed her eyes shut.
“Vanessa said, ‘What if the dose is too much like last time?’”
Lucas stopped breathing.
“What did Grandma say?”
“She said, ‘Catherine was different. This child only needs to sleep.’”
Silence filled the room.
Vanessa rose abruptly.
Her attorney tried to stop her.
“That child is inventing things.”
Emma recoiled against Lucas.
Detective Moore ordered Vanessa to sit.
Lucas stared through the glass at the woman he had nearly married.
“How did you know Catherine?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Margaret’s face had finally changed.
Not fear for herself.
Fear of the past reopening.
Lucas stood.
“My wife died before I met Vanessa.”
Margaret looked away.
“When did they meet?”
No answer.
“Mother.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Vanessa worked briefly for the private medical firm Catherine used.”
Lucas remembered the home nurse who visited during Catherine’s final months of fatigue.
He never met her directly.
The agency sent different staff depending on his travel schedule.
“Was Vanessa inside my home?”
“Yes.”
“When Catherine died?”
Margaret remained silent.
Detective Moore answered from the doorway.
“Phone records show Vanessa’s number connected to a tower near your estate that evening.”
Vanessa’s attorney objected.
Rachel ignored him.
“We will need to reopen the case.”
Lucas’s world narrowed.
His daughter’s kidnapping plot, the trust theft, and his canceled wedding were no longer separate from the greatest loss of his life.
Catherine may not have died naturally.
Margaret finally spoke.
“She was ill.”
“No. She had a condition doctors said was manageable.”
“She was exhausted.”
“What did you give her?”
“Nothing.”
“Emma heard you discussing a dose.”
“She was half asleep.”
Lucas looked at his mother.
“I spent four years believing I failed Catherine because I was not home.”
Margaret’s jaw tightened.
“You were never home.”
The cruelty of the answer confirmed more than denial would have.
Lucas stepped backward as if struck.
Helen touched his arm.
“Do not speak further without counsel present.”
“This is my mother.”
“That no longer protects you.”
Detective Moore separated every adult.
The wedding hotel became an active investigation scene.
Catherine’s archived medical records were preserved.
Her blood samples from a previous hospital admission still existed.
Toxicologists began reviewing whether medication could have contributed to her death.
The investigation would take weeks.
Lucas took Emma home under police escort.
The mansion no longer felt safe.
Every room contained a memory Margaret might have manipulated.
Emma refused to sleep in her bedroom.
Lucas made a bed for her beside the sofa in his private study.
He stayed awake in the chair.
At three in the morning, Emma whispered:
“Daddy?”
“I’m here.”
“Did Mommy disappear because of me?”
“No.”
“Grandma said Mommy got sick after having me.”
Lucas moved to the floor beside her.
“Your mother loved you more than anything.”
“Did she want to leave?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the last message she sent me said she was waiting for us to grow old together.”
Emma began crying.
Lucas held her until she slept.
After sunrise, he opened Catherine’s old cloud account.
Most files had been deleted after her death.
One unsent draft remained.
The message was addressed to Lucas.
Margaret has been moving money from Emma’s trust planning account. Vanessa Whitmore is helping her through the medical firm. I have proof. Please come home before they realize I know.
May you like
The draft was saved six hours before Catherine died.
Continue to the next part: Lucas discovers Catherine hid the missing evidence inside the locked bathroom where Emma was imprisoned during the wedding.
