Chapter 4 - Someone Inside the Hospital
Grant was outside Noah’s room before anyone finished speaking.
Two security officers blocked the corridor.
Daniel called hospital administration.
Detective Ortiz ordered entrances monitored.
The pediatric wing went into restricted access.
Grant checked every person passing the hallway.
Doctors.
Nurses.
Parents.
A janitor pushing a cart.
Nobody looked like the man from the security recording.
That meant nothing.
Whoever took the photograph knew exactly where Noah was.
They also knew Grant had discovered the cameras.
Ortiz took Grant’s phone.
“Do not reply.”
Grant stared at the message.
“They were here.”
“Yes.”
“Near my son.”
“Yes.”
Grant’s voice dropped.
“Find them.”
Ortiz looked toward Daniel.
“We need the hospital’s surveillance footage now.”
Daniel was already moving.
Grant returned to Noah.
He was sleeping after the imaging.
The doctor had found bruising but no fracture or internal injury.
Grant should have felt relieved.
Instead he sat beside the bed staring at the door.
Tessa remained two rooms away.
A hospital employee had been assigned outside her door too.
Grant called his attorney.
“Get the protective order filed.”
“We are.”
“Include Tessa.”
There was a pause.
“Grant, she is an employee.”
“She was attacked protecting my son.”
“I understand.”
“Include her.”
“We can request it.”
Grant looked at Noah.
“Do it.”
Forty minutes later, Daniel entered.
“We found the photographer.”
Grant stood.
“Who?”
“A man wearing hospital scrubs.”
“Name.”
“We don’t know yet.”
Grant’s expression darkened.
Daniel showed him a still image.
The man wore a surgical mask and blue scrubs.
He carried a badge.
The badge belonged to a respiratory therapist who was currently on vacation in Florida.
Grant studied the eyes.
“Is that the man from my house?”
“We’re comparing.”
“Where did he go?”
“Service elevator.”
“Then?”
“He changed clothes in a maintenance hallway.”
Daniel swiped.
Another image appeared.
Gray jacket.
Baseball cap.
Leather messenger bag.
Grant recognized him.
“That’s him.”
“The man with Vivienne.”
“Yes.”
Ortiz entered.
“We have a vehicle.”
Grant turned.
“What?”
“He exited through the loading area.”
“Dark blue sedan.”
“Plate?”
“Stolen.”
Grant expected that.
Ortiz continued.
“We recovered a partial facial match.”
“Name.”
She hesitated.
“Adrian Vale.”
Grant knew the name.
Not personally.
Professionally.
Vale had once worked as a private investigator.
Then he lost his license after allegations involving illegal surveillance and evidence tampering.
Grant’s companies had rejected him for contract work years ago.
Grant looked at Ortiz.
“Why is he working with Vivienne?”
“That is what we need to determine.”
Daniel’s phone rang again.
He answered.
His face changed.
Grant was beginning to hate that expression.
“What now?”
Daniel looked at him.
“The bank review found something.”
Grant waited.
“Over the last eight months, Vivienne transferred money from her personal allowance account to a consulting company.”
“How much?”
“Three hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
Grant’s eyes narrowed.
“Company?”
“Vale Strategic Advisory.”
Ortiz exhaled.
“There it is.”
Grant felt anger sharpen into focus.
Vivienne had been paying Adrian for eight months.
Eight months earlier was when Grant proposed.
It was also when Vivienne began spending more time at the house.
It was when Noah’s behavior changed.
Grant looked toward his son.
“What was she paying him to do?”
Ortiz answered.
“We will find out.”
Grant turned.
“I want everything on Adrian Vale.”
Daniel nodded.
“Already compiling it.”
Grant went to see Tessa.
She was sitting upright now.
Her face was pale.
A nurse had cleaned the blood from her hair.
Grant closed the door behind him.
“Tessa.”
She looked up.
“How’s Noah?”
“No fractures.”
She exhaled.
“Thank God.”
Grant pulled a chair closer.
“There is something I need to tell you.”
Tessa watched his expression.
“What happened?”
“We recovered the footage.”
Her shoulders dropped with relief.
“So they know.”
“Yes.”
“She can’t blame me anymore.”
“No.”
Tessa studied him.
“That isn’t all.”
Grant shook his head.
“We found older recordings.”
Tessa became still.
“How old?”
“Several weeks.”
He could not tell her everything at once.
“She was hurting him before today.”
Tessa covered her mouth.
Grant looked down.
“I should have known.”
Tessa shook her head.
“So should I.”
“You did know something.”
“I suspected she scared him.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
The moment he asked, he regretted his tone.
Tessa’s face changed.
“I tried.”
Grant stared at her.
“When?”
“Three times.”
He felt cold.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The first time was after you came back from Chicago.”
Grant remembered.
Tessa had asked to speak with him privately.
Vivienne interrupted.
She claimed they were late for dinner.
Grant told Tessa they would talk later.
They never did.
“The second?”
“After Noah started refusing to nap.”
Grant remembered that too.
Tessa told him Noah was anxious.
Vivienne laughed and said Tessa was overprotective.
Grant told them both they needed to work together.
He felt sick.
“The third?”
Tessa looked away.
“The day the bracelet was found.”
Grant closed his eyes.
“You told me Vivienne planted it.”
“I told you something was wrong.”
“You never said her name.”
“I was afraid.”
Grant looked at her.
“Of what?”
Tessa laughed bitterly.
“Of exactly what happened.”
“She was already telling you I was jealous.”
“She repeatedly mentioned how easy it would be to replace me.”
“She told me you trusted her.”
Grant remembered Vivienne casually suggesting new caregivers.
He had always refused because Noah loved Tessa.
Tessa continued.
“Then your wife’s bracelet appeared in my laundry.”
“I knew nobody would believe anything I said after that.”
“I believed you.”
Tessa looked at him.
“You did not fire me.”
“That is not the same thing.”
Grant had no answer.
She was right.
Tessa’s eyes filled.
“I kept telling myself I was imagining things.”
“I thought maybe she was simply strict.”
“I thought if I watched Noah more carefully, I could keep him safe.”
Grant looked toward her bandaged head.
“You almost got killed today.”
Tessa glanced at him.
“She wasn’t trying to kill me.”
Grant thought of the heavy ceramic vase swinging toward her skull.
“You don’t know that.”
Tessa fell silent.
Grant told her about Adrian.
Her reaction surprised him.
She knew the name.
“Adrian Vale?”
Grant leaned forward.
“You know him?”
“I’ve heard Vivienne say that name.”
“When?”
“About two weeks ago.”
“What happened?”
“She was in the conservatory on the phone.”
“I walked in.”
“She ended the call.”
“She looked furious.”
“What did you hear?”
Tessa thought.
“She said, ‘Adrian, I don’t care how you do it.’”
Grant’s pulse quickened.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
Tessa looked directly at him.
“She said, ‘Before Grant changes the trust.’”
Grant sat back.
His trust again.
“Why would I change it?”
Tessa shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Grant did.
At least partly.
Two months earlier, his attorney had advised him to update his estate plan after marriage.
Grant had mentioned it in front of Vivienne.
The current trust placed nearly everything in trust for Noah.
Vivienne would receive a fixed amount if Grant died after they married.
Enough to live comfortably forever.
But nowhere near control of Grant’s companies or Noah’s inheritance.
Vivienne had joked that she hoped he never died because she had “expensive taste.”
Grant had laughed.
Now he wondered what she heard.
His phone rang.
His attorney.
Grant answered.
“What?”
“We found a forged document.”
Grant stood.
“What document?”
“A trust amendment.”
Grant’s throat tightened.
“What does it say?”
“It names Vivienne as co-trustee over Noah’s inheritance if you die.”
Grant stared at the wall.
“Co-trustee with whom?”
A pause.
“Adrian Vale.”
Grant went silent.
Tessa watched his face.
The attorney continued.
“Your signature is forged.”
“The witness signatures appear questionable.”
“It was submitted to one of your secondary estate administrators three weeks ago.”
“Why wasn’t I notified?”
“It was flagged for verification.”
“We were going to raise it at our meeting next Monday.”
Grant’s anger surged.
“Next Monday?”
“We receive fraudulent submissions constantly.”
“This one looked like an internal drafting mistake.”
Grant gripped the phone.
“What happens if I die before Monday?”
His attorney did not answer immediately.
“That document could create significant confusion until challenged.”
“Could Vivienne access Noah’s trust?”
“Possibly temporarily.”
Grant looked toward Tessa.
There it was.
Money.
Control.
But something still did not make sense.
Vivienne was weeks away from marrying Grant.
Why risk everything by abusing Noah now?
Why involve Adrian?
Why forge documents before the wedding?
Unless the wedding itself was not the real deadline.
Grant asked one more question.
“When was that amendment supposedly signed?”
His attorney checked.
“June eighteenth.”
Grant stopped breathing.
June eighteenth.
The same date printed on Elise’s death certificate four years earlier.
His attorney noticed the silence.
“Grant?”
Grant barely heard him.
June eighteenth was not a random date.
Vivienne knew exactly what it meant.
She had attended the memorial dinner that year.
She had sat beside Grant while he talked about Elise.
She had held his hand.
Grant lowered the phone.
Tessa looked worried.
“What is it?”
Grant answered slowly.
“The forged trust uses the anniversary of my wife’s death.”
Tessa stared.
“That’s sick.”
Grant nodded.
Then another thought struck him.
Vivienne had met Grant only six months after Elise died.
At least that was what Grant believed.
He pulled out his phone and searched the name Adrian Vale.
Old articles appeared.
One photograph caught his attention.
Vale leaving a courthouse five years earlier.
A woman walked behind him.
Her face was turned sideways.
Grant enlarged the image.
His blood went cold.
Tessa saw his expression.
“What?”
Grant handed her the phone.
The woman behind Adrian Vale was younger.
Her hair was darker.
But there was no mistake.
Vivienne.
The article was dated seven months before Elise died.
Grant stared at the screen.
Vivienne had lied about when she met Adrian.
Maybe she had lied about when she entered Grant’s life too.
And suddenly Grant remembered something Elise had told him two weeks before her death.
Something he had dismissed as stress.
May you like
Someone had been following her.
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