Chapter 4 - What Vivienne Said at the Hospital
Grant wanted Caroline's hospital records immediately.
His attorney warned him not to turn suspicion into accusation.
Caroline had died from complications of a documented illness.
Nothing yet proved otherwise.
Grant understood.
But Vivienne had lied.
That was enough to investigate.
The hospital retained hallway security footage for legal archives because Caroline's estate had once requested preservation.
Grant watched with his attorney.
10:14 p.m.
Vivienne entered Caroline's room.
10:31 p.m.
Vivienne left.
No violence.
No suspicious object.
Nothing criminal.
But Caroline pressed the nurse call button less than one minute later.
The nurse who responded, Linda Torres, still worked there.
She remembered Caroline.
“She was upset.”
“What did she say?”
Linda thought carefully.
“She asked me to write something down.”
Grant leaned forward.
“What?”
Linda had documented it in a nursing note.
Patient states visitor threatened to “take what belongs to the Mercer child” if documents are not surrendered.
Grant's stomach tightened.
“Did Caroline identify the visitor?”
“Only as Richard Hale's daughter.”
Vivienne.
Grant asked:
“Why wasn't I told?”
Linda looked uncomfortable.
“Caroline asked us not to call you that night. She said she needed proof first.”
That sounded exactly like Caroline.
Careful.
Methodical.
Too determined to burden anyone until she knew she was right.
Grant hated it now.
The medical record confirmed Caroline's condition worsened the following morning.
Nothing established Vivienne caused it.
Grant refused to invent that conclusion.
But Vivienne had threatened her.
That was real.
Then Linda remembered another detail.
“Caroline gave me an envelope.”
Grant froze.
“For me?”
“No.”
“For whom?”
“Her caregiver.”
“Tessa?”
Linda nodded.
Tessa looked genuinely confused when Grant confronted her.
“I never received anything.”
Hospital records showed a courier collected it the following morning.
Signed for by:
T. Monroe.
Tessa stared at the signature.
“That isn't mine.”
A handwriting comparison later confirmed it.
Someone had impersonated Tessa.
The courier company still had delivery metadata.
The envelope had not gone to Grant's house.
It went to a private mailbox.
The mailbox account belonged to Cross Advisory LLC.
Vivienne's company.
Grant's anger became ice.
Vivienne hadn't simply searched for Caroline's evidence after her death.
She had intercepted something Caroline tried to send to Tessa while she was still alive.
Then Grant's security team recovered more footage from his home.
Two days before the attack on Noah, Vivienne had stood directly beneath the camera speaking on her phone.
The audio was faint.
But one sentence was clear.
“If Grant finds out who Noah really is, we're finished.”
Grant replayed it.
Once.
Twice.
Then he looked at his son sleeping beside Tessa.
Noah was unquestionably Caroline's child.
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Grant had been there at his birth.
So what could Vivienne possibly mean?
