Chapter 10 - The Nurse Who Signed the Wrong Paper

The woman’s name was Melissa Ward.

She had worked private overnight shifts at the Solmere penthouse during Eleanor’s final month.

Charlotte had never heard her name.

That alone made her suspicious.

Melissa looked exhausted.

“I was told you lived overseas and wanted no involvement with your mother’s care.”

Charlotte sat across from her.

“Who told you that?”

“Mr. Mercer.”

Of course.

Melissa explained that Eleanor had developed insomnia.

Adrian arranged for a private physician to prescribe medication.

Eleanor rarely took it.

She distrusted the doctor.

The night she died, Melissa arrived at 9:00 p.m.

Eleanor seemed healthy.

She was anxious.

But alert.

At 10:40 p.m., Adrian came to the penthouse.

Melissa was told to wait in the staff kitchen.

Twenty minutes later, she heard something fall.

When she returned, Eleanor was on the floor.

She was breathing.

Charlotte’s fingers tightened around the chair.

“What happened?”

“I called emergency services.”

“Adrian stopped me.”

Charlotte stared at her.

“He said Solmere had a private medical team.”

Melissa began crying.

“He told me an ambulance would create publicity.”

A private doctor arrived twelve minutes later.

Dr. Malcolm Price.

The same man whose name appeared on Charlotte’s fake psychiatric evaluation.

Eleanor was still alive.

Price injected something.

Minutes later, Eleanor stopped responding.

Melissa demanded that they call an ambulance.

They finally did.

By then, nearly thirty minutes had passed.

Charlotte could barely speak.

“And the death certificate?”

Melissa looked ashamed.

“Dr. Price wrote cerebral hemorrhage.”

“You signed as witness.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Melissa covered her face.

“Simon Graves threatened me.”

He knew Melissa had previously been disciplined for a medication error at another hospital.

He said Solmere lawyers would destroy her career.

She had a child.

A mortgage.

She panicked.

She signed.

Charlotte sat silently.

There was still no proof Eleanor had been deliberately killed.

A delay in emergency care was terrible.

The injection might have been legitimate.

But the people involved were exactly the same people forging Charlotte’s medical records and stealing Solmere money.

Daniel asked.

“Why come forward now?”

Melissa looked at Charlotte.

“I saw the lobby video online.”

Charlotte frowned.

Someone had leaked it.

Melissa continued.

“I watched that woman drag you across the floor.”

“And I realized everyone was doing to you what they did to your mother.”

“They made her look unstable.”

“They isolated her.”

“They made everyone afraid to believe her.”

Charlotte felt tears rise.

For months, she had wondered why Eleanor stopped calling friends before her death.

Why her mother sounded frightened.

Now she understood.

They had been building the same cage around Eleanor first.

Daniel called investigators.

Melissa agreed to testify.

Before leaving, she handed Charlotte one final item.

A photograph of Eleanor’s medication bottle.

“I took this because the label looked wrong.”

Charlotte examined it.

The prescription had been issued by Malcolm Price.

But the pharmacy number belonged to a Solmere-owned medical concierge service.

Charlotte looked at Daniel.

“Find out who authorized that service.”

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They did.

The approval signature belonged to Adrian Mercer.