Chapter 8 - THE ACCIDENT MY SISTER CALLED BAD LUCK
Three years earlier, my mother spent six weeks in rehabilitation after a car crash outside Lake Forest.
Vanessa had been driving.
She claimed a truck forced them off the road.
I sent flowers.
Daniel advised me not to visit.
He said Dad would use the accident to guilt me back into the family.
I believed him.
Now the detective reopened the old file.
There had never been evidence of a truck.
The damage pattern suggested Vanessa simply left the road.
But why?
Mom sat very still.
“I remember arguing with her.”
Dad turned.
“About what?”
She looked at me.
“Claire.”
My throat tightened.
“I had found something.”
Three years ago, Mom had discovered one of Daniel's companies using the Bennett family address on financing documents.
She confronted Vanessa because Vanessa worked for Daniel.
Vanessa panicked.
They argued while driving.
“She kept saying I was going to ruin everything.”
My mother's voice shook.
“Then she reached for my phone.”
The car crossed the center line.
Hit a barrier.
Rolled once.
Vanessa walked away with bruises.
Mom nearly died.
“Did she do it intentionally?” Adam asked.
Mom closed her eyes.
“I don't know.”
That uncertainty was somehow more painful.
Vanessa had been willing to fight her for the phone.
Whether she meant to crash or not, she had chosen the secret over our mother.
My phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
Claire, please let me explain.
Vanessa.
I stared at it.
Then:
Daniel lied to both of us.
Then:
I can prove he did something worse.
I didn't answer.
The detective advised against direct contact.
But Vanessa sent a photograph.
It showed Daniel standing beside a woman outside a private medical clinic.
The woman wasn't Vanessa.
I knew her.
Dr. Elaine Morris.
The fake therapist.
The timestamp was five months earlier.
Then Vanessa sent another image.
A document.
My name.
A patient consent form.
A signature that looked like mine.
The clinic had apparently been collecting information under my identity for nearly a year.
Dad's attorney called immediately.
“They created a medical record.”
“Why?”
“To support the incompetency petition.”
The detective looked grim.
“That crosses several additional lines.”
Then Samuel entered.
He'd come to update me on Lily.
“She had a good feeding.”
I smiled despite everything.
Then he noticed the clinic name on the photograph.
His expression changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“Vanessa.”
Samuel sat down.
“I know that clinic.”
“Why?”
His face tightened.
“Because Vanessa went there during our marriage.”
I waited.
He looked almost ashamed.
“She told them she was you.”
The room went silent.
“What?”
“She used your insurance information once after Daniel asked her to.”
My stomach turned.
“Why would Daniel need her to pretend to be me?”
Samuel's answer was quiet.
“To establish a history.”
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Then he said the part that made my father stand up.
“Claire, Daniel has been building a fake psychiatric record under your name since before your wedding.”
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