Chapter 6 - THE STORY I COULDN’T REMEMBER
“That isn't possible.”
Melissa sat across from Monica in a conference room while I attended remotely from my hospital bed.
Her lawyer sat beside her.
Rachel sat beside me.
Melissa looked miserable.
“Last October, you asked Julian about sleep medication.”
“No.”
“He told me you did.”
“That's different.”
She nodded.
“I know that now.”
Julian told Melissa I had severe insomnia but didn't want it documented because I was applying for a senior partnership position.
He asked whether she could “help.”
She accessed Dr. Patel's credentials illegally.
She created the prescription.
“You knew that was wrong.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“My mom owed Julian money.”
There it was.
Not loyalty.
Leverage.
Julian had loaned Melissa's mother $18,000 after a divorce.
Melissa believed helping him would erase part of the debt.
“Did he ask you to make the prescriptions look like I'd been taking zolpidem regularly?”
Her eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He said insurance.”
My fingers tightened around the blanket.
“What insurance?”
“He didn't tell me.”
The disability policy.
A documented medication history could make later toxicology findings appear less suspicious.
But why would Julian need that unless he expected zolpidem to appear in my system?
Melissa swallowed.
“There’s something else.”
Of course there was.
“The third prescription wasn't picked up by Julian.”
“Who?”
“You.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
“The pharmacy has ID verification.”
Records were requested.
The pickup had occurred four weeks before the crash.
A driver's license was scanned.
Mine.
Rachel whispered, “Could Julian have used it?”
Maybe.
Then security footage arrived.
The woman collecting the prescription wore sunglasses and a baseball cap.
But she wasn't me.
She was shorter.
Blond.
I knew that walk.
Rachel did too.
“Oh my God.”
The woman was Julian's sister.
Samantha.
I hadn't spoken to Samantha in nearly a year.
We used to be close.
Then she abruptly stopped returning calls.
Now I understood there had been another secret inside the family.
Samantha had collected medication prescribed fraudulently in my name.
But why?
I called her.
She answered on the fifth ring.
“Audrey.”
“Why did you pick up my prescription?”
Silence.
“Samantha.”
“I was trying to help you.”
“By impersonating me?”
“You don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
Her voice cracked.
“Julian said you were planning to leave him.”
I looked at Rachel.
“What does that have to do with sleeping pills?”
Another silence.
Then Samantha whispered:
“He said you were becoming dangerous.”
“Dangerous to whom?”
“To yourself.”
I almost laughed.
Then she said the sentence that changed the entire investigation.
May you like
“He showed me your suicide note.”
I had never written a suicide note.
