Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Coffin

Rosa's daughter, Elena, had worked nights at the private clinic owned by Vale Holdings. She was thirty-one, newly engaged, and had the same dark hair as Evelyn.

“She found something in the clinic's records,” Rosa said. “She called me crying. Said she had to tell Mrs. Vale.”

Marcus slammed his hand on the desk. “Enough.”

Adrian didn't look away from Rosa. “What happened to Elena?”

“She disappeared. Two days later they told me she died in a car accident. They wouldn't let me see her.”

“Who wouldn't?”

Marcus stepped forward. “Rosa is confused.”

Rosa raised her chin. “I know my child's face.”

Adrian remembered the closed coffin. The doctor's solemn explanation about injuries. Marcus insisting Adrian was too shattered to handle the arrangements.

“You signed the release,” Adrian said to his brother.

Marcus's expression hardened. “I saved you from seeing something you couldn't survive.”

“Where is Evelyn?”

“I don't know.”

A small voice came from the couch. Sophie was awake.

Elena Delgado had wanted to become a nurse because, as a girl, she'd watched her mother come home with swollen feet and still sit up all night caring for sick neighbors. Rosa had saved for her tuition in a coffee tin. Adrian remembered Elena as a teenager who called him 'little boss' and beat him at basketball on the driveway. He hadn't seen her in years. The idea that he had stood beside her coffin without knowing made his stomach turn.

Rosa described the final call. Elena had whispered that a patient was being kept without consent, that records were disappearing, and that a woman who looked like Evelyn had been moved to an isolated room. 'She said she was coming to you,' Rosa told Adrian. 'She was afraid your brother would get there first.' Marcus snapped that Elena had been stealing files. Rosa's eyes flashed. 'She was stealing proof.'

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He turned to Marcus. 'If you thought Evelyn was dead, why did you change the locks on her rooms?' Marcus said nothing. 'Why did you fire her doctor? Why did you stop Sophie from talking about the blue door?' Marcus's jaw tightened. Sophie, who had been silent for several minutes, pulled her knees to her chest. 'Uncle Marcus said red medicine makes people forget bad dreams,' she whispered. 'But Mommy cried when he brought it.'

“Uncle Marcus knows,” she said. “He brings her the red medicine.”