Chapter 10 - Corinne’s Petition
The guardianship petition had never reached court.
No judge signed it.
No custody transferred.
Corinne’s attorney drafted it after Laura had been absent three months.
Why?
Corinne claimed emergency planning.
Attorney confirmed.
She asked for options if Ethan “became unable to parent due work or emotional collapse.”
That wording infuriated him.
She had been planning around both parents.
Not with them.
Was there financial benefit?
Minor.
Guardianship would allow administration of Maisie’s protected education trust, but independent trustee controlled money.
Corinne could not access principal personally.
So motive was not fortune.
Control.
She wanted to be indispensable.
Ethan asked:
“Did you ever want Laura home?”
Corinne hesitated too long.
“At first.”
“And later?”
“I thought everything was calmer without her.”
Maisie cried upstairs.
Ethan looked toward sound.
“You told a baby her mother left because you wanted story to become true.”
Corinne cried.
“Yes.”
That was unforgivable enough without inventing murder.
Then Laura contacted Ethan directly.
A text.
ONE HOUR. PUBLIC PLACE. NO CORINNE.
They met at a quiet botanical conservatory café.
Laura looked thinner than before.
But unmistakably herself.
Ethan stopped several feet away.
She did too.
“Hi.”
His voice broke.
“Hi.”
He did not touch her.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For which part?”
He almost smiled.
Then didn’t.
“For believing you left. For signing things I didn’t read. For letting Corinne become gatekeeper.”
Laura nodded.
“I’m sorry for disappearing after I recovered.”
“Why didn’t you come back?”
“Because Nathan threatened Maisie. Then because I found Corinne’s petition. Then because I realized everyone was still making choices around me.”
“Even after Nathan was exposed?”
“I needed to know whether home was safe emotionally, not just physically.”
Ethan accepted.
Then he asked about cabinet.
“What did I see first?”
“Monitor.”
“Why put it there?”
“I wanted Corinne forced to decide whether to tell you.”
“She didn’t.”
“I know.”
“Did you expect Maisie to point?”
Laura smiled sadly.
“She remembers music box.”
“So not cabinet secret itself.”
“No. She associated cabinet with me because Corinne used to play my music box when she cried.”
Then Ethan asked:
“What is still inside that I haven’t found?”
Laura looked at him.
“You haven’t opened back compartment.”
Police had found guardianship petition there.
Laura shook head.
“There are two.”
Ethan went cold.
“What’s in second?”
“I never opened it.”
“Why?”
“Because Corinne told me it belonged to your father.”
Ethan’s father had been dead three years.
Laura continued:
“Whatever is in there is why Corinne first became afraid of me before Hale.”
Ethan stared.
“You think this started before your illness?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the lock on that compartment was installed the week before my pharmacy mix-up.”
May you like
And only one person had ordered it.
Corinne.
