Chapter 8 - THE CRY HE CHOSE NOT TO HEAR.
Marcus remembered that morning.
Celeste had told him Hannah was suffering a dangerous psychiatric crisis and needed immediate treatment. He signed the sealed authorization without opening it.
Hannah’s voice remained controlled.
“You heard me crying behind the bedroom door.”
“I believed the doctor.”
“You believed the explanation that preserved your schedule.”
Marcus accepted the accusation and requested criminal review of his signature.
The doctor, Samuel Cross, had evaluated Hannah, the unpaid trainees and elderly tenants who resisted selling their apartments. Every inconvenient person received the same diagnosis: paranoid, unstable or incapable.
Samuel was Celeste’s uncle.
Police seized his clinic files. Inside were draft reports for Lily and Grace dated before the girls ever met him.
Then the kitchen security system restored deleted audio.
Celeste said, “Once Marcus sees their faces, he’ll blame their behavior.”
May you like
A man answered, “Only if you leave before he learns I watched.”
The voice belonged to Marcus’s father.
