Chapter 8 - The Woman They Tried to Erase
Grace watched Victoria’s press conference without moving.
Nathan stood beside her.
Charles Whitmore displayed documents claiming Grace had been committed to a psychiatric facility five years earlier.
Grace whispered.
“I’ve never been committed anywhere.”
Elliot immediately began searching.
The documents listed a clinic in Vermont.
Nathan read the date.
Three weeks after Grace had disappeared from his life.
“You were in Vermont?”
Grace shook her head.
“I was in Ohio.”
“My aunt hid me there until Lily was born.”
Elliot looked up.
“Can she prove it?”
Grace’s face fell.
“My aunt died two years ago.”
Nathan turned.
“There must be records.”
“Rent.”
“Utilities.”
“Medical visits.”
Grace hesitated.
“I used another name.”
Nathan frowned.
“Why?”
“Your father’s investigator found me twice.”
“I thought he was going to take my baby.”
Nathan understood.
Every measure that had kept Lily hidden now made Grace look suspicious.
That was the trap.
Victoria and Charles had built a story where survival itself became evidence of guilt.
Nathan sat beside Grace.
“We prove the psychiatric document is fake.”
Elliot nodded.
“I’ll contact the clinic.”
Grace looked at the television.
Victoria was crying now.
“She’s good.”
Nathan’s voice was cold.
“She’s practiced.”
Grace looked at him.
“You loved her.”
Nathan did not lie.
“Yes.”
Grace nodded.
“That makes this harder.”
“No.”
“It makes me angrier at myself.”
Grace lowered her eyes.
Nathan continued.
“There were signs.”
“She always wanted to know where I was.”
“Who contacted me.”
“Which old friends still had access to me.”
“I thought it was jealousy.”
Grace looked at him.
“It was surveillance.”
Nathan said nothing.
Elliot’s phone rang.
He answered.
Then frowned.
“What?”
Nathan asked.
“The Vermont clinic confirms a patient named Grace Bennett was admitted.”
Grace stood.
“That is impossible.”
Elliot held up one hand.
“Wait.”
He listened longer.
Then his expression changed.
“What date of birth?”
Grace gave hers.
Elliot repeated it.
There was a pause.
Then he ended the call.
“The birth date does not match.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“What does?”
Elliot looked at Grace.
“The patient was sixty-three.”
Grace stared.
“So someone used my name.”
“Yes.”
Nathan walked to the window.
“They created a paper trail using another patient.”
Elliot nodded.
“Which means there may be billing records.”
Grace looked at him.
“Why does that matter?”
“Because false records usually leave financial footprints.”
Within two hours, Elliot’s investigators found one.
The psychiatric stay had been paid by a charitable foundation.
Whitmore Family Wellness Initiative.
Nathan almost smiled.
Charles had manufactured proof using his own foundation.
But the victory lasted minutes.
A second news story appeared.
This one claimed Nathan had secretly transferred six million dollars to Grace.
Nathan stared at the transaction screenshot.
“I never sent this.”
Elliot studied the account number.
“It came from a Cole Meridian reserve account.”
Nathan’s face hardened.
“That requires two executive authorizations.”
“Yours and the CFO’s.”
Nathan looked at the timestamp.
The transfer was dated three months earlier.
The same week Grace was hired.
“They’re making it look like I paid her.”
Grace whispered.
“To bring Lily into your house.”
Nathan understood.
The new narrative was worse.
Instead of victim and father, they would be portrayed as co-conspirators.
Nathan called the CFO.
No answer.
Then Elliot received a message.
The CFO had resigned.
A prepared statement claimed Nathan personally ordered the payment.
Grace sank into a chair.
“They can manufacture anything.”
Nathan crouched in front of her.
“Not everything.”
She looked at him.
“They can’t manufacture four years with Lily.”
“That won’t save me in court.”
“No.”
Nathan looked toward his daughter.
“But it will remind us what we’re fighting for.”
Grace’s expression softened.
That afternoon, Lily asked Nathan to sit on the floor and color with her.
He did.
She handed him a purple crayon.
“Mommy says you work too much.”
Nathan looked at Grace across the room.
Grace raised an eyebrow.
“I said you used to.”
Lily drew three figures.
A tall man.
A woman.
A little girl holding both their hands.
Nathan stared at it.
“What’s this?”
Lily shrugged.
“Tomorrow.”
Nathan could not speak.
Grace turned away.
Then Lily added a fourth figure.
A woman in a white dress.
She drew a large red X through it.
Nathan almost laughed.
Grace did not.
She stared at the picture.
“What?”
Nathan asked.
Grace pointed at something Lily had drawn beside Victoria.
A black rectangle.
“What is that, baby?”
Lily looked up.
“The phone.”
Grace went still.
“What phone?”
“The one Miss Victoria put under the kitchen table.”
Nathan and Grace exchanged a look.
Nathan crouched beside Lily.
“When?”
“The day before she hit Mommy.”
Nathan’s pulse quickened.
“What did she do with it?”
May you like
Lily returned to coloring.
“She said Uncle Charles needed to hear everything Mommy said.”
