Chapter 5: The Blue Cabinet
Claire sat beneath the hospital lights while a nurse removed an adhesive monitor from her arm.
Nora stood beside the bed, still clutching her disabled phone.
“Your tests show a powerful sedative,” the nurse said.
“Far beyond a normal dose.”
Claire looked at Dr.
Mercer.
“Tell her who ordered it.”
Mercer closed the door.
“Richard did.”
“Louder.”
“Richard ordered it.”
Nora stepped closer.
“And you obeyed him?”
Mercer lowered himself into a chair.
“My daughter, Lily, needed surgery Richard’s foundation had agreed to fund.
He found an error I made on an insurance form three years ago.”
“So you helped him bury my sister?”
“I believed you would be moved to a private clinic.
I did not know about the c0ffin until tonight.”
Claire gripped the blanket.
“You signed a d*ath certificate without examining me.”
“Yes.”
“You let my son believe I was g*ne.”
“Yes.”
Mercer’s voice broke, but Claire did not soften.
“Help Lily by telling the truth,” she said.
“Do not use her to excuse what you did.”
He nodded once.
“I recorded every call Richard made this week.”
Nora stared at him.
“Where are the recordings?”
“On a server he cannot reach.”
The door opened, and Richard entered with Detective Harlan and a silver-haired attorney.
Richard laid a temporary custody order on Claire’s bed.
“Ethan is with me until a judge reviews your condition.”
Claire tore the paper down the middle.
“Ethan watched you point a g*n at him.”
Harlan placed another copy on the table.
“Destroying legal documents will not help you.”
Nora raised her phone.
“Neither will shutting off a livestream after thousands watched it.”
“The video begins after Mrs.
Parker damaged the c0ffin,” Richard’s attorney said.
“It does not prove how she entered it.”
Claire stared at him.
“You are saying I sealed myself inside?”
“I am saying a court requires facts.”
Mercer stood.
“Her toxicology report is a fact.”
Richard smiled at him.
“And your signature is on every prescription.”
Mercer’s shoulders dropped.
Richard placed a pen beside Claire.
“Sign over temporary control of the Parker trust.
Admit yourself for thirty days, and Ethan can visit.”
“You want my inheritance.”
“I want stability.”
“You emptied six hundred thousand dollars from Ethan’s education account.”
The attorney glanced at Richard.
“You told me the audit was incomplete.”
“It was,” Richard said.
Claire pointed toward him.
“That is why he needed the blue envelope.
It contains the bank auditor’s signed report and my new trust instructions removing him.”
Harlan held out his hand.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
Richard leaned over the bed.
“Then it cannot help you.”
Mara appeared in the doorway with a vase of white lilies.
Harlan blocked her.
“Visiting hours are over.”
“I brought flowers.”
“This patient is under observation.”
Mara looked directly at Claire.
“The blue arrangement seemed appropriate.”
Claire opened her hand beneath the blanket.
The brass key pressed into her palm.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Put them by the window.”
Mara set down the vase.
A narrow strip of blue paper protruded beneath the ribbon, but Richard pulled the flowers toward him.
“What is this?”
He ripped open the ribbon and found an empty envelope.
Mara lifted one eyebrow.
“A sympathy card.”
Richard crushed it in his fist.
“Where is the real one?”
“I run a f*neral home, Mr.
Parker.
People trust me with things they cannot replace.”
Harlan grabbed Mara’s wrist.
“You are obstructing an investigation.”
Nora held up her phone.
“The livestream restarted ten seconds ago.”
Harlan released Mara at once.
A nurse entered and looked at Claire.
“There is a boy calling the ward for you.”
Richard snatched the room telephone before Claire could reach it.
“Ethan is asleep.”
The nurse pointed toward Claire’s personal phone on the table.
Its screen lit with an audio message.
Claire pressed PLAY.
Ethan’s whisper filled the room.
“Mom, Richard brought me to the house.
He’s tearing up the study.”
A door creaked in the recording.
May you like
Then Richard’s voice came through Ethan’s phone.
“I know you’re awake, Ethan—and I know you have the other copy.”
