Chapter 8 - THE FALSE NURSE
Olivia was not involved.
Her login had been copied.
The digital order originated from a workstation in an unused administrative office.
Security footage showed a woman wearing scrubs entering the room.
Her badge identified her as Natalie Reed.
No employee by that name existed.
The woman left through the maternity parking garage.
A camera captured her face as she removed her mask.
Vivian.
She had been released pending formal charges because prosecutors were still assembling the conspiracy case.
She violated the protective order within hours.
Her red coat had been replaced by blue scrubs.
Her cruelty remained the same.
Police found the scrubs inside a parking structure trash bin.
Vivian’s car was abandoned nearby.
A rideshare driver took her toward Graham’s law office.
By the time officers arrived, both were gone.
Graham had left his second phone at the courthouse.
His primary phone stopped transmitting.
His law firm claimed he had been suspended and no one knew his location.
Elias did not believe them.
The firm’s managing partner, Robert Hale, had signed several fraudulent guardianship petitions.
He also represented Graham’s family trust.
Federal agents searched the office.
They found shredded files, empty server racks, and passports hidden inside a conference room wall.
Graham had prepared multiple escape identities.
One passport named him Andrew Cole.
Vivian’s listed surname.
They planned to leave as a married couple with two newborn children.
A private aircraft had been reserved for the following month.
Destination: Portugal.
The booking included four passengers.
The babies were already part of the travel plan.
Detective Bennett placed armed officers outside my door.
Elias slept in the chair near the window.
At 2:13 a.m., I woke from a contraction.
He was instantly beside me.
“Is it the babies?”
“I don’t know.”
A monitor showed both heartbeats.
The contraction passed.
I looked at my brother in the dim room.
“Did you ever think about coming home?”
“Every day.”
“Did you know I married him?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know what he was doing to me?”
“Not at first.”
“What changed?”
“A photograph.”
He removed his phone and opened an old surveillance image.
Graham stood outside our house with his hand around my upper arm.
My face showed pain.
Elias had seen it fourteen months earlier.
“That was when I stopped believing you were only a financial target.”
“Why didn’t you come then?”
“Because the agent protecting my identity was Robert Hale.”
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The managing partner of Graham’s firm had controlled Elias’s witness protection information.
The man assigned to keep him safe was working for the people hunting him.
