Chapter 8 - Rachel’s Last Call
Rachel called Claire at 9:12 a.m.
“I’m done hiding.”
Claire recorded conversation because she feared anonymous source.
Rachel told her she had finally identified person who falsified dental records after crash.
That person was key.
If Melissa’s body was deliberately identified as Rachel, then someone exploited accident to erase Rachel.
Maybe same person had leaked Melissa’s location.
Rachel planned meet Claire at mansion at four.
Why mansion?
She wanted Ethan present eventually.
But first she needed Claire to see evidence.
Then she said:
“Keep Sophie away from Eleanor until I arrive.”
Claire asked why.
Rachel answered:
“Because Eleanor knows more than she admits.”
Call ended.
Sophie overheard only fragments.
Later Rebecca arrived instead.
She said Rachel changed meeting location after realizing she was followed.
Rebecca would deliver documents.
Before she could—
attacked.
So Sophie’s “Please save her” referred to Rebecca’s cries behind door, not Rachel.
One mystery solved.
But where was Rachel?
Police traced rental car.
Abandoned near train station.
No sign of struggle.
Inside glove box:
one dried red rose.
And handwritten message:
ETHAN STILL DOESN’T KNOW WHO FLOWERS WERE REALLY FOR.
That seemed impossible.
Ethan had bought original roses for Rachel.
Hadn’t he?
Then he remembered receipt.
Eight years earlier, he had ordered bouquet after phone call from father.
Henry told him Rachel would be at foundation office and urged him to apologize.
Henry chose florist.
Henry specified twenty-four roses.
Ethan paid.
So technically Ethan bought them.
But Henry orchestrated delivery.
Why?
Maybe bouquet itself was meant for someone else.
Old florist archive contained handwritten instruction:
24 RED — R.C. — FOUNDATION — H.C.
H.C. = Henry Carter.
Rachel Carter recipient.
Still straightforward.
Then another invoice from same day appeared.
24 RED — M.G. — HALCYON.
M.G.
Melissa Grant.
Henry ordered identical bouquet for Melissa.
Two bouquets.
One for Rachel.
One for Melissa.
Why?
Foundation tradition gave twenty-four roses to women completing Halcyon program.
Melissa was scheduled to leave that night.
So roses were symbolic graduation gift.
Rachel later hid evidence in one flower from her own bouquet.
But after crash, bouquets may have been switched.
Which bouquet did Henry bring Halcyon?
Which one did Melissa take into Rachel’s car?
Current artificial rose might recreate Melissa’s bouquet, not Rachel’s.
Then Rebecca remembered:
“Melissa carried roses into car.”
Police accident photographs had never catalogued flowers because fire destroyed most interior.
But one evidence photo showed burned metal floral pin.
So Melissa had bouquet.
Rachel’s bouquet remained at foundation.
Henry later carried another bouquet to Halcyon.
Timeline became tangled.
Someone had deliberately used identical arrangements to move evidence.
Then Rachel sent Claire a scheduled email.
Subject:
THE FLOWERS.
Message:
There were forty-eight roses that night.
Everyone remembers twenty-four.
Find the second bouquet and you find the person who switched my identity with Melissa’s.
May you like
Attached photograph showed two bouquets side by side.
Between them stood Eleanor.
