Chapter 3 - THE BLOOD IN REBECCA’S CAR
Police identified the blood within hours.
It belonged to Dr. Samuel Keene.
He was an obstetrician at Ashcroft Medical Center.
He had treated Rebecca during a private fertility program.
He had also been the person who accessed Margaret’s medical records.
Dr. Keene had not been seen since the party.
His phone was found beneath the passenger seat of Rebecca’s car.
One message had been sent shortly before the vehicle was abandoned.
She knows the baby was never possible.
Margaret read the words twice.
“What baby?”
James did not know.
Rebecca had repeatedly told the family she planned to become pregnant immediately after the wedding.
Helen ordered a nursery renovated inside the Ashcroft estate.
She purchased antique furniture.
She even selected names.
But Dr. Keene’s files revealed Rebecca had undergone several fertility procedures.
All had failed.
Six months earlier, he concluded she was unlikely to carry a pregnancy.
Helen refused to accept it.
She paid Keene to alter the reports.
Rebecca’s future marriage contract included a family-heir clause.
If she could not produce a child within three years, Charles Wynn’s family could withdraw from the Ashcroft partnership.
Lily’s birth threatened everything.
The family already had a first granddaughter.
Margaret controlled the corresponding trust rights.
Rebecca’s future daughter, even if she eventually had one, would receive no voting authority.
Officer Reeves found another message.
Rebecca had sent it to Dr. Keene the night before the party.
Tell my mother the truth or I will.
Keene replied.
Helen already knows.
That message changed Margaret’s understanding.
Rebecca was not simply obeying Helen.
She was trapped by her too.
Still, Rebecca had stood between Margaret and Lily.
She had said, “You caused this.”
She had watched Helen hold a baby over fire.
Fear did not erase that.
Police searched Rebecca’s apartment.
The nursery closet contained forged adoption documents.
The listed child was Lily Foster.
Margaret’s daughter.
The papers named Rebecca and Charles as intended guardians if Margaret became incapacitated.
Margaret felt sick.
“They planned to take her.”
James’s face hardened.
The documents carried Helen’s signature.
Dr. Keene had provided a psychological assessment claiming Margaret suffered postpartum psychosis.
He had never examined her.
Charles Wynn’s signature appeared on the adoption agreement.
Rebecca’s did not.
That was the first sign she may not have approved the entire plan.
Then officers found a hidden audio recorder.
Rebecca had recorded a conversation with Helen.
Margaret listened through headphones.
Helen’s voice was calm.
Once Margaret is declared unstable, Lily enters temporary family care.
Charles’s people only need to believe the baby could eventually become his legal heir.
Rebecca answered.
She is my sister’s child.
Helen replied.
She is a trust vote wrapped in pink fabric.
Margaret removed the headphones.
James closed his eyes.
His wife had reduced a newborn to corporate control.
Rebecca’s voice continued.
What if Margaret fights?
Helen laughed.
Who will believe her after we finish the medical record?
The recording ended.
Rebecca had collected evidence.
Maybe she planned to expose Helen.
Maybe she planned to use the evidence for herself.
No one knew.
Police traced Rebecca’s phone to a train station.
Security footage showed her entering with a suitcase.
She purchased no ticket.
Instead, she met a man near the west entrance.
Dr. Keene.
He was alive.
The blood in the car had come from a cut on his hand.
Rebecca had helped him disappear.
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The footage showed them entering a black SUV.
The vehicle belonged to Charles Wynn.
