Chapter 10 - THE FILE ABOUT GRACE
During a search of Victor Hale’s office, investigators discovered a psychiatric report bearing Grace’s name.
It described postpartum psychosis, suicidal thinking, and delusions about financial theft.
Grace had never met the doctor who signed it.
The doctor denied writing it.
The report had been created three days before the storm.
Ethan planned to use it if Grace survived.
If she accused him of locking her outside, he would claim she had imagined the event.
If she tried to reclaim Northcrest, he would challenge her legal capacity.
If she disappeared, the report would explain why she drove into the storm.
Every possible outcome had been prepared.
Sabrina had supplied personal details from Grace’s maternity records.
A hospital employee had accessed the files without authorization and sent them to her.
Detective Reed traced the payment.
The employee confessed.
Sabrina had asked specifically about postpartum depression.
Grace had reported ordinary fatigue.
Nothing more.
They rewrote exhaustion as instability.
Grace read the false report in silence.
“They were going to make Lily afraid of me one day.”
Margaret looked at her.
“They were going to control the story because they expected you wouldn’t be here to correct it.”
That was when Grace stopped thinking only about revenge.
She wanted the truth public.
Not gossip.
Not a dramatic accusation no one could verify.
Documents.
Video.
Bank records.
The original deed.
They built an evidence release scheduled for the wedding ceremony.
If Grace sent Margaret one word—NOW—the files would go simultaneously to police, prosecutors, Northcrest’s board, employees, lenders, and every guest who had provided an email address.
Owen offered to stay with Lily outside the ballroom.
Grace refused.
“Ethan told everyone we died together.”
She held her daughter closer.
“We return together.”
On the morning of the wedding, Grace wore gray.
Not black.
She was not mourning her old life.
She carried Lily beneath a warm blanket and entered Northcrest through a service corridor Owen had used for years.
At the ballroom doors, music began.
Margaret asked one final question.
“Are you ready?”
Grace looked down at her daughter.
“No.”
Then she lifted her head.
May you like
“Open the doors anyway.”
👉 Grace was terrified, but the sight waiting beyond the doors made her anger stronger than fear.
