Chapter 12 - THE JOURNAL
We didn’t chase Vivian’s car.
Elaine gave investigators the footage, the test results, and the risk that records were being removed.
By noon, officers had obtained authority to search the relevant rooms and seize specified materials.
Frank helped identify the evidence we had already preserved.
I waited outside my own house.
The treatment journal was found in Vivian’s locked cabinet.
So were unused packets bearing copied pharmacy labels and a small bottle consistent with the object seen on the bedroom recording.
Everything was photographed and collected for examination.
An investigator let me see a photographed page after the initial documentation.
There were dates, times, and observations.
Questioned transfers today.
Restless after meeting with Lang mentioned.
Resume night checks.
My sister had cataloged my distress like a maintenance problem.
I turned away from the screen.
“Was every night in there?”
“No,” the investigator said. “Don’t assume more than the record shows.”
Dr. Vale came to Elaine’s office with counsel that afternoon.
He admitted he had signed an incapacity assessment without conducting the required independent examination.
Vivian had described incidents and supplied selected messages from me.
He had relied on her account because she paid his consulting fees.
“You called me paranoid,” I said.
“I believed the reports.”
“You never asked me what I’d found.”
He looked at the table.
His lawyer limited further discussion of the medication.
But Vale authorized release of his records and identified the folder Vivian had used to support her assessment.
It contained angry texts, sleepless emails, and recordings of arguments.
No lab reports.
No mention of my improved sleep away from home.
That evening, Vivian called.
I answered only after notifying Frank.
“You let strangers search our mother’s things,” she said.
“You used her brooch while entering my room.”
A silence.
“I kept this family together.”
“You kept records of when to wake me.”
“Nicholas would have been destroyed.”
“So you chose me.”
“You were always stronger.”
I shut my eyes.
That was the excuse beneath everything.
The child who could carry more was expected to carry whatever the others broke.
“The board meets at nine,” she said. “You can still stop this from becoming public.”
Then Nicholas sent an email to every director.
Attached was a proposed sale agreement with an execution deadline of 10:00 a.m.
May you like
He claimed the buyer would walk unless Vivian’s proxy was honored.
The buyer was his own company.
