Chapter 5 - CATHERINE WAS ALIVE
Adrian wanted to drive to Connecticut himself.
Vale refused.
Police coordinated with local authorities.
By dawn, the facility had been secured.
Catherine was alive.
Medicated.
Disoriented.
But alive.
For three years, the Ashbourne family had told the world she disappeared voluntarily after Lily’s death.
In reality, a private physician had certified her as mentally unstable.
The certification was based partly on her insistence that Lily had not drowned.
Her refusal to accept a lie became proof of illness.
The cruelty of it was almost perfect.
I sat with Adrian in a quiet breakfast room as he listened to the update.
“She asked for Lily every day.”
Vale said.
Adrian covered his face.
“What did they tell her?”
“That searches found nothing.”
“That her memories were distorted.”
“That grief was creating delusions.”
I felt cold.
Exactly what they had prepared for me.
Make someone see the truth.
Then make truth itself evidence she cannot be trusted.
Catherine’s medical records were filled with notes.
Patient repeatedly claims daughter is alive.
Patient suspects family conspiracy.
Patient demonstrates fixation.
Every accurate statement had been turned into pathology.
Adrian looked toward his mother.
“She knew.”
“Yes.”
Vale answered.
“And she paid the facility.”
Not personally.
Through the Ashbourne Children’s Foundation.
The same charity hosting the gala.
Money donated to protect vulnerable children had helped finance Lily’s disappearance.
When that detail reached the ballroom, some guests finally stopped protecting appearances.
Board members called attorneys.
Donors demanded records.
One senator left a statement with police.
Another guest admitted seeing Lily in the mansion months earlier but accepted Victoria’s explanation that she was a staff member’s child.
Silence had always been Victoria’s greatest asset.
Now people were competing to explain why they had ignored warning signs.
Then investigators examined the gala guest list.
One name stood out.
Dr. Stephen Rowe.
Catherine’s psychiatrist.
He had been sitting three tables from Victoria.
When police looked for him, he was gone.
Security footage showed Rowe leaving the ballroom two minutes after I struck the portrait.
Before police arrived.
Vale issued an alert.
Then Lily said.
“Doctor Rowe has the key.”
“What key?”
“The red room.”
No hidden room labeled red had been found.
Police asked Lily where it was.
She pointed toward the east garden.
“Under the chapel.”
The Ashbourne estate had a private stone chapel.
Beneath it, officers found stairs.
At the bottom.
A steel safe.
Inside.
Original guardianship papers.
Video recordings.
Cash.
Passports.
And a sealed envelope addressed to me.
ELENA.
The handwriting belonged to Catherine.
May you like
The date was six months earlier.
She had known I might be next.
