Chapter 10 - The man behind the hospital
Sebastian was alive.
And he had watched the crash unfold from somewhere inside the Blackwood system.
Federal investigators joined the case once the shell-company transfers surfaced.
Rebecca warned me everything was becoming larger than divorce.
Fraud.
Medical-record manipulation.
Identity concealment.
Potential conspiracy.
My mother’s disappearance.
Possibly more.
But I still wanted one thing first.
Control of my own life.
Four weeks after the crash, I stood between parallel bars in Geneva.
My injured leg trembled.
Ara waited nearby.
“Again?”
“Again.”
I took one step.
Then another.
Pain tore upward.
I kept moving.
For years, Caleb had described me as delicate.
Sensitive.
Overreactive.
I had slowly adopted his vocabulary for myself.
That ended there.
The same afternoon, Rebecca placed divorce disclosures before me.
Caleb’s lawyers claimed the penthouse.
The country property.
Several investments.
I signed challenges under Lucia Sinclair.
Then Sinclair Meridian exercised its property rights.
The Blackwoods received formal notices concerning hospital leases and corporate facilities.
Not eviction.
Not yet.
An audit.
That frightened them more.
Caleb called.
“You’re attacking the company.”
“No. I’m auditing property I own.”
“My employees could lose jobs.”
“Then cooperate.”
“My mother says—”
He stopped.
I almost laughed.
“Still?”
“No.”
His voice became quieter.
“I was going to say my mother says Sinclair Meridian doesn’t have authority.”
“She’s wrong.”
“I know.”
That surprised me.
Then Caleb said:
“I’m turning over everything.”
“Why?”
“Because I found something in Dad’s office.”
He sent a photograph.
A hidden ledger.
Payments from Sebastian to Victoria.
Every year.
The payments began when Caleb was sixteen.
Beside several entries was one recurring phrase:
L.S. containment.
Lucia Sinclair.
Me.
“What does containment mean?”
“I don’t know.”
But another entry appeared the year Caleb met me.
Marriage integration successful.
My skin went cold.
Victoria had been paid after our wedding.
Caleb whispered:
“I’m sorry.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
I believed him.
It changed nothing about the hospital.
Nothing about Khloe.
Nothing about the years he diminished me.
But some monsters in my marriage had existed before Caleb knew their names.
Then Rebecca called from New York.
“Lucia, federal agents located Victoria.”
“Where?”
“Blackwood Memorial.”
“Why would she go back?”
“She entered a sealed executive operating suite.”
My mother’s old suite.
Security officers followed.
Inside they found Victoria burning documents.
She was arrested.
Before agents removed her, she demanded to speak with me.
I accepted a video call.
Victoria appeared exhausted.
“You think Sebastian is your enemy.”
“He manipulated my entire life.”
“No.”
She leaned toward the camera.
“He manipulated mine too.”
“Then tell investigators everything.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Her eyes filled with genuine terror.
“Because Sebastian isn’t hiding from you, Lucia.”
May you like
She looked behind the camera.
“He’s coming to claim you.”
