Chapter 4 - ADRIAN’S SIGNATURE
The signature was almost perfect.
Adrian examined it under the library light.
“That isn’t mine.”
His attorney had not yet arrived.
He did not care.
He looked at Detective Vale.
“Take whatever you need.”
Victoria snapped.
“Adrian.”
He ignored her.
Vale asked.
“Who has access to your signature?”
“My executive assistant.”
“Family office.”
“Legal department.”
“My mother.”
Victoria’s mouth tightened.
Then Adrian remembered something.
Two months earlier, she asked him to sign several foundation letters.
Blank signature pages were attached.
He had signed without reading everything.
He looked sick.
“She copied it.”
Victoria said nothing.
The investigators moved from one hidden room to another.
The blue salon contained surveillance equipment.
The library wall hid filing cabinets.
The basement held the confinement suite prepared for me.
Lily had not imagined anything.
The mansion itself had been built into a machine for control.
Then police found Catherine’s file.
Her photograph.
Her medical history.
Her financial records.
A document transferring guardianship of Lily.
Signed by Catherine.
Except the signature had been forged.
Adrian read the date.
Three years earlier.
One week before Lily supposedly drowned.
He sat down hard.
“They planned it.”
I touched his shoulder.
He looked at me.
“They planned my niece’s death.”
Not her death.
Her disappearance.
But to the family, maybe the distinction had been useful only legally.
Lily told Vale she had lived in several places.
A private clinic.
A house near the ocean.
Then the mansion.
“Why did they move you?”
“Mommy kept looking.”
My breath stopped.
“Catherine was still looking for her?”
Lily nodded.
“Grandma said Mommy had to stop.”
Vale asked.
“How?”
Lily shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Adrian stood.
“Where is Catherine?”
No one answered.
Victoria finally spoke from across the room.
“She is safe.”
Adrian turned.
It was the first useful sentence Victoria had given us.
Safe meant alive.
His eyes filled.
“Where?”
Her lawyer whispered urgently.
Victoria ignored him.
“She needed treatment.”
“For what?”
“Obsession.”
“She refused to accept Lily’s death.”
“Because Lily wasn’t dead.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“She was destroying the family.”
Adrian stared at his mother like he had never seen her.
“You imprisoned a child to prove her mother was unstable?”
“No.”
Victoria said.
“I removed a destabilizing element until Catherine could be managed.”
Lily started crying.
I crossed the room and knelt beside her.
Adrian’s voice dropped.
“Tell me where my sister is.”
Victoria leaned back.
“You always were sentimental.”
Then Detective Vale’s phone rang.
He listened.
His expression changed.
“Adrian.”
“What?”
“We found a vehicle registered to your family foundation.”
“Where?”
“Outside a private psychiatric facility in Connecticut.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
The patient list contained one woman admitted under a false name.
Caroline Ashe.
May you like
Age thirty-nine.
Same birth date as Catherine Ashbourne.
