Chapter 6 - The medicine cabinet
Emily’s face emptied.
Gloria answered before she could.
“She has postpartum depression.”
“Has she been diagnosed?” Daniel asked.
“She doesn’t need some stranger to tell us what we can see.”
Emily stared at Gloria.
“You told Evan I was unstable.”
“You are exhausted.”
“Because you wake me every time Lily cries.”
Gloria folded her arms.
“A mother should care for her child.”
Emily laughed once.
It wasn’t amusement.
It sounded broken.
I touched her shoulder.
“Emily, who wrote the physician’s letter?”
Daniel showed her the name.
She stared.
“I’ve never met him.”
Evan’s face changed.
Daniel noticed.
“Have you?”
“No.”
“Then why did Dr. Peter Lang certify that your wife demonstrated impaired judgment?”
Evan shrugged.
“My mother arranged a consultation.”
Emily stepped backward.
“What consultation?”
Gloria said nothing.
Emily’s eyes suddenly moved toward the kitchen.
Then upstairs.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“The vitamins.”
I felt a chill.
“What vitamins?”
“Gloria started giving me supplements after Lily was born. She said they helped with hormones.”
Gloria rolled her eyes.
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous.”
“Where are they?” Daniel asked.
“Bathroom.”
Rachel went upstairs with one security officer.
Evan immediately followed.
Daniel stopped him.
“Stay here.”
“This has become insane.”
“No,” I said. “It became insane before I arrived.”
Rachel returned several minutes later carrying a toiletry bag.
Inside were multiple bottles.
Some labeled.
Some not.
Daniel did not touch them.
“Preserve those.”
Gloria suddenly exploded.
“They’re vitamins!”
“Then testing them should be harmless,” Daniel replied.
Emily sank into a chair.
“I kept telling Evan I felt foggy.”
I crouched beside her.
“He said it was normal.”
“When?”
“After Gloria started staying here.”
Eleven months.
Gloria had been invited for six weeks.
She had remained almost a year.
Emily looked toward Evan.
“You knew?”
He shook his head.
But too quickly.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
He stepped away to answer.
I held Lily while Emily rested her forehead against my shoulder.
For the first time since I arrived, she cried without trying to hide it.
Daniel returned.
His face was grim.
“That was the forensic accountant.”
“And?”
“The company-card freeze triggered automatic review of linked reimbursements.”
He looked at Evan.
“Someone has been moving money through shell vendors.”
Evan said nothing.
“How much?” I asked.
“Preliminary number is $2.8 million.”
Gloria gasped.
Daniel continued.
“But that isn’t the worst part.”
May you like
He held up his phone.
“One of the shell companies is registered to someone in this room.”
