Chapter 12 - What Cassandra Knew
Natalie spent the night under guard.
The next morning, she finally told police everything.
Daniel had discovered that Charles Hayes had been moving money through fake medical vendors connected to the clinic.
Lorraine had altered records years earlier, yes.
But partly because Charles had ordered her to.
The medication death had been an accident.
The cover-up had not.
Charles built a scheme around it.
My father took the blame.
Lorraine stayed silent to protect her family.
Daniel uncovered the financial trail.
Then died.
Years later, Charles threatened to confess.
Within weeks, he was dead.
Cassandra had discovered pieces of the truth after finding her father’s papers.
But instead of exposing them, she started using them.
Blackmail.
First Lorraine.
Then Natalie.
“Why Natalie?” I asked.
Natalie sat in the hospital bed holding Eli.
“Because Daniel left me everything.”
“What did Cassandra want?”
“Original account records.”
“Why now?”
“Federal investigators reopened one of Charles’s shell companies.”
Jackson looked sick.
“So she thought the records could connect her?”
Natalie nodded.
“She’s been moving money out of the old accounts.”
I thought of Cassandra’s expensive car.
Her constant vacations.
Her vague “consulting business.”
It suddenly made sense.
“And Mia?” I asked.
Natalie looked at me.
“She wasn’t supposed to be there.”
The morning Mia was dropped off, Cassandra had already planned to meet Lorraine.
She brought baby Eli after drugging Natalie with a sedative.
Her goal was simple.
Scare Natalie into giving up the records.
Use Eli as leverage.
But Mia saw Cassandra carry the sleeping Natalie through the lake house.
Later, Cassandra brought Eli to Lorraine’s home.
Mia asked too many questions.
She saw the red box.
She heard names.
She refused to leave with Cassandra.
Then Rosie got ripped when Cassandra tried to drag Mia toward the car.
Mia screamed.
Lorraine finally intervened.
She told Cassandra to leave.
But Lorraine made her own terrible decision.
She locked Mia in the sewing room “for a few minutes” while she drove Eli somewhere safe.
“Why not call police?” I asked.
Natalie gave me a sad look.
“People like Lorraine spend their whole lives hiding disasters. After a while, hiding becomes instinct.”
I understood that too well.
Grant entered.
“We found Cassandra’s vehicle.”
“Where?”
“Airport parking garage.”
Jackson stood.
“She’s leaving the country.”
“Possibly.”
“Can you stop her?”
“We’re trying.”
My phone buzzed.
A message.
Unknown number.
I opened it.
A photo appeared.
My house.
Taken from across the street.
Then another message.
COME HOME ALONE.
Grant immediately reached for the phone.
“Don’t respond.”
A second photo arrived.
Mia’s bedroom window.
My blood went cold.
May you like
Then a final message appeared.
BRING DANIEL’S DRIVE OR JACKSON LEARNS WHAT YOU DID.
