Chapter 14 - PLAN B
Plan B was worse than murder.
Daniel had prepared to frame me for Lily’s death.
The fake psychiatric records.
The forged prescriptions.
Witness statements.
A prewritten suicide note on my laptop.
A scheduled email supposedly written by me.
I can’t live with what I’ve done.
Police found sedatives hidden in my kitchen.
They found Lily’s DNA on a scarf Daniel had placed inside a sealed evidence bag.
If Lily had not stopped the wedding, I would have been transported to Hawthorne the next morning.
There, I would have been declared unstable.
Within days, Daniel planned to sign estate documents under spousal authority.
Then Lily would disappear.
Her death would be blamed on me.
I would supposedly kill myself afterward.
Daniel would become the grieving widower.
The only surviving legal guardian.
The only person controlling the property.
The plan was so cruel I had trouble understanding how anyone could design it.
Margaret had.
Daniel had perfected it.
Robert had legalized it.
Shaw had medicalized it.
And I had almost married it.
Federal prosecutors joined the case.
Arrests spread across three states.
A judge resigned.
Two attorneys were charged.
A former police captain was indicted.
The consortium collapsed.
Daniel eventually accepted a plea deal only after prosecutors threatened life sentences on multiple conspiracy counts.
Margaret refused.
She went to trial.
I testified.
So did Lily.
I begged the prosecutor not to make her.
Lily insisted.
“He lied about me.”
She sat in the witness chair with both hands in her lap.
The defense attorney tried to confuse her.
“You were angry your mother was marrying Mr. Harper, correct?”
“Yes.”
“So you wanted to stop the wedding.”
“Yes.”
“Because you didn’t like him.”
Lily looked toward Daniel.
Then back at the attorney.
“No.”
“Why, then?”
“Because he wanted my mom’s money.”
The attorney smiled.
“How could an eight-year-old possibly understand financial documents?”
Lily shrugged.
“I didn’t.”
A few jurors smiled.
“I understood when he said my mom would be easier to control after they locked her in a hospital.”
The courtroom went silent.
The attorney tried again.
“Isn’t it possible you misunderstood?”
Lily shook her head.
“No.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because when I asked him about it…”
She touched her cheek.
“…he hit me.”
Daniel stopped smiling.
The jury convicted Margaret on every major count.
Daniel received decades in federal prison.
Robert received twenty-two years.
Dr. Shaw cooperated and received eleven.
The man responsible for sabotaging Michael’s construction platform confessed.
He gave me one final detail.
Michael knew the platform was failing seconds before it collapsed.
He had enough time to save himself.
But another worker was underneath.
Michael pushed the man away.
Then the platform fell.
He died saving someone.
That was Michael.
Always.
Months later, I stood beside his grave with Lily.
She placed a cup of hot chocolate beside the stone.
I smiled through tears.
“He hated marshmallows.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
She shrugged.
“Daniel used to bring me hot chocolate.”
I stiffened.
Lily looked at me.
“I want that memory to belong to Dad now.”
I cried.
Then my phone rang.
Detective Ruiz.
Her voice was serious.
“Claire, we found one final account connected to Daniel.”
“How much?”
“Not money.”
“What?”
“A life insurance policy.”
I went cold.
“On me?”
“No.”
May you like
A pause.
“On Lily.”
