Chapter 10 - DR. HARRISON’S WIFE
Dr. Harrison sat down like his legs had failed.
“My wife’s mother was Caroline?”
Caroline began sobbing.
“You know Rebecca?”
He stared at her.
“I was married to her for eleven years.”
Was.
Rebecca Harrison had died two years earlier from cancer.
She and Dr. Harrison had no children.
He knew she had grown up in institutional care.
He knew she refused to discuss her biological family.
He never knew they were the Vales.
Then he remembered something.
“Rebecca hated Margaret.”
Dad leaned forward.
“Did she know who she was?”
“I don’t know.”
But Rebecca once saw Grandma at a hospital gala.
She left immediately.
That night she told Dr. Harrison:
“That woman destroys children and calls it care.”
He assumed she was talking about institutional abuse.
She was talking about herself.
Then Dr. Harrison remembered a storage box Rebecca made him promise never to throw away.
It was still in his garage.
Inside were journals.
Letters.
And one red notebook.
Sarah’s notebook.
My mother had found Rebecca.
Years ago.
They had been sharing information.
The notebook contained detailed notes about Grandma’s manipulation of medical records.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
The final entry was written six days before Mom died:
Rebecca confirmed Margaret used the incapacity clause on her too. We have enough to remove her.
Then:
Arthur must be told, but I’m afraid he’ll defend Margaret.
Dad looked shattered.
He had.
Rebecca’s journal contained something else.
She had contacted a federal healthcare investigator because Vale Foundation funds touched government programs.
A meeting was scheduled.
Sarah died before it happened.
Rebecca backed away after Sarah’s death.
She was afraid.
Then came the secret none of us expected.
Rebecca wrote that Grandma had not acted alone.
One hospital administrator repeatedly approved altered files and buried complaints.
Name:
Thomas Vale.
Dad whispered:
“My father?”
Grandpa.
The man whose trust was supposedly protecting me.
The man everyone had treated as the good parent.
Rebecca believed he knew about Grandma’s methods for years.
Then Dr. Harrison opened a final sealed envelope from Rebecca.
On the front:
FOR LILY, IF MARGARET EVER DOES TO HER WHAT SHE DID TO ME.
May you like
Inside was one sentence.
Your grandfather tried to stop her too late.
