Chapter 8 - THE CALL NAOMI WAS FORCED TO MAKE.
Naomi admitted answering Eleanor’s phone, but not willingly. Vanessa had brought her from Cross Residential to the mansion and ordered her to repeat a prepared sentence while a guard stood nearby.
“I thought refusing would cost three residents their medication.”
Eleanor looked stricken. “I believed Thomas died thinking I chose not to come.”
Naomi replied, “That lie punished both of us. Do not make my fear erase the workers who suffered after I stayed silent.”
She surrendered the names of staff who had helped conceal the call and accepted review of her role.
The officer recovered the guard’s notes. They showed Vanessa selected low-income employees with sick relatives because threats against medical coverage produced obedience.
David’s company had funded that coverage through deductions from worker paychecks, then presented each approved claim as family generosity.
Carter said, “You withheld benefits they purchased and returned them as favors.”
Then the original hidden-camera installer came forward.
May you like
Thomas had not installed it to watch Vanessa.
He installed it because Eleanor had already tried to change the will.
