Chapter 6 - THE DOCTOR WHO NEVER EXISTED
The note from Lily contained an address.
Not a full one.
Just a drawing of a red barn, a lake, and a road sign marked 14.
Aaron recognized it.
My parents had owned an old hunting property off County Road 14 when Vanessa and I were children.
My mother sold it years ago.
At least, that was what she told us.
Police reached the property at 2:17 a.m.
The barn was empty.
But Lily had been there.
They found rope fibers, a juice box, and one of her pink sneakers near a mattress in the loft.
They also found the missing kitchen server smashed beneath a tractor tire.
Vanessa had destroyed the casing.
She had not destroyed the internal drive.
A forensic technician took it directly to the lab.
My mother arrived at the guardianship hearing the next morning wearing cream silk and a pearl necklace.
She looked composed.
Grieving.
Respectable.
Malcolm sat beside her.
Daniel held Emma in the hallway while I entered the courtroom with Aaron and a family attorney named Julia Bennett.
Julia was small, sharp-eyed, and impossible to intimidate.
She had read the hospital records before sunrise.
“She is going to make you angry,” Julia warned me.
“I already am.”
“Don’t show her.”
Inside, my mother cried without smudging her mascara.
She told the judge she loved Emma.
She said I had always been unstable.
She described my leaving home at nineteen as “a pattern of abandonment.”
Then Malcolm submitted medical records.
Not Emma’s.
Mine.
The documents claimed I had been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown eight years earlier.
I stared at the papers.
“That never happened.”
Julia was already on her feet.
“We challenge authenticity.”
Malcolm smiled.
“The records are certified.”
Judge Ellis looked at me.
“Mrs. Carter, have you received psychiatric treatment?”
“Therapy after a miscarriage. Outpatient. Never hospitalization.”
My mother lowered her eyes as if embarrassed for me.
Malcolm called his witness.
Dr. Samuel Voss.
A gray-haired man in a dark suit entered the courtroom.
My father gripped the bench behind us.
“That’s him,” he whispered.
“The fake neurologist?”
“Yes.”
Dr. Voss testified that my father had dementia.
Then he testified that I had exhibited paranoia and unstable attachment behaviors.
Julia stood.
“When did you examine Mrs. Carter?”
“March 12, eight years ago.”
“Where?”
“Lakeside Behavioral Center.”
Julia handed him a document.
“Lakeside closed nine years ago.”
The courtroom went silent.
Voss blinked.
Malcolm’s head snapped toward him.
Julia stepped closer.
“And your medical license?”
Voss swallowed.
“Current.”
“No.”
She lifted another page.
“Suspended fourteen months ago for falsifying insurance claims.”
My mother’s face hardened.
Judge Ellis leaned forward.
“Counsel?”
Malcolm stood slowly.
“I was not aware.”
Julia turned to the judge.
“We have hospital records showing Emma suffered a restraint bruise, head trauma, and emotional distress. We also have an active criminal investigation involving the petitioner.”
Judge Ellis denied the guardianship request.
My mother did not react until the judge left.
Then she turned to me.
“You think you won?”
Her voice was barely audible.
I leaned closer.
“No. I think you failed.”
Outside the courtroom, Aaron received a call.
His face changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at me.
“They recovered footage from the kitchen server.”
My mother stopped walking.
Aaron continued.
“It shows Patricia holding Emma while Vanessa swings the skillet.”
Malcolm closed his eyes.
But Aaron was not finished.
“There’s another file.”
“What file?” I asked.
“A recording from last week.”
My mother took one step backward.
May you like
Aaron looked directly at her.
“In it, you and Vanessa discuss what happens if Rachel and Daniel both die before the trust transfer.”
