Chapter 7 - THE DAYS SHE COULD NOT REMEMBER
Rachel had blamed herself for the missing hours.
She would begin reading at night and wake on the sofa without remembering falling asleep.
She missed two morning meetings.
Once, she discovered a document bearing her signature but could not remember reviewing it.
Derek used each incident against her.
“You’re working too hard.”
“You’re becoming forgetful.”
“Maybe I should handle more.”
Marlene brought herbal tea into the bedroom each evening.
She called it a family recipe for sleep.
The hospital toxicologist identified the sedative in Rachel’s blood.
It matched the pills inside Derek’s nightstand.
The drug caused confusion, memory gaps, impaired coordination, and emotional instability.
Exactly the symptoms listed in the false physician’s declaration.
They had created the condition they intended to use against her.
Investigators reviewed the kitchen cameras.
Marlene was recorded crushing pills into Rachel’s tea.
Derek watched.
“How long until it works?” he asked.
“Twenty minutes.”
“And she won’t remember signing?”
“She barely remembers anything after midnight.”
The recording was six weeks old.
Rachel felt physically sick.
She had spent those weeks questioning her own mind.
Every morning, Derek asked whether she remembered what she had agreed to the night before.
If she said no, he sighed with disappointment.
He told her she needed treatment.
He suggested she take leave from the company.
Rachel had started believing him.
Only the fake invoices kept her anchored to reality.
Numbers did not change when Derek changed the story.
Elena obtained the records of the physician, Dr. Neil Foster.
He was Marlene’s cousin.
He had written the prescription without examining Rachel.
He had also signed the incapacity declaration.
Foster was arrested for unlawful prescribing, fraud, and conspiracy.
He immediately blamed Marlene.
According to Foster, Marlene claimed Rachel was already abusing medication and needed discreet treatment.
Then investigators showed him the financial promises Derek made.
A board seat.
Debt repayment.
A private clinic funded through Bennett Urban Systems.
Foster stopped pretending he had been deceived.
He agreed to cooperate.
He revealed that Marlene had requested a stronger medication shortly before the assault.
“Something that could make a fall look believable,” she had said.
Foster refused.
Not because of morality.
Because he feared a fatal dose would be traced.
Derek then contacted another supplier.
The supplier’s messages had been deleted.
Federal agents recovered them.
Derek asked for medication that could produce unconsciousness without appearing in routine tests.
The supplier sent a price.
No delivery record appeared.
Detective Lane warned Rachel that the conspiracy might have progressed beyond planning.
She remembered one night waking in the bathtub with water running.
Derek claimed she had fallen asleep while bathing.
Marlene told staff Rachel was drinking secretly.
Rachel had not consumed alcohol that night.
The bathroom camera had not yet been installed.
But Derek’s phone contained a photograph of her unconscious in the tub.
The timestamp showed he waited eleven minutes before calling for help.
He never called emergency services.
He carried her to bed and told the housekeeper nothing had happened.
The photograph was stored inside the RACHEL TRANSITION folder.
Caption:
FIRST INCIDENT — USABLE IF NEEDED.
The prosecution added attempted poisoning and reckless endangerment charges.
Rachel’s medical records were reviewed for earlier incidents.
One hospitalization stood out.
Six months earlier, she had collapsed during a company retreat.
Doctors diagnosed dehydration.
Blood samples had been discarded after routine storage.
But the hotel kitchen preserved security footage.
Marlene entered the service pantry carrying Rachel’s water bottle.
She remained alone for forty seconds.
May you like
The retreat occurred the same week Rachel first questioned Westlake’s invoices.
👉 Derek’s financial scheme had been protected by a slow campaign to make Rachel appear unstable—and Marlene had practiced on her body whenever the numbers came too close to the truth.
