Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO CAME BEFORE ME
Melissa and I were not related.
But the resemblance was impossible to ignore.
Derek had selected the same type of woman twice.
Red hair.
Green eyes.
Financial background.
Limited family nearby.
A tendency to believe people deserved second chances.
Detective Ellis believed Melissa had discovered fraud at Mercer Gardens.
She confronted Derek.
Then she disappeared.
Her car was found near a bus station.
The family told police she left voluntarily.
They produced emails claiming she was afraid of commitment.
Investigators now believed Derek wrote those emails himself.
The remains beneath the garage floor had not yet been identified.
But dental records confirmed one body belonged to Melissa.
The medical examiner estimated she died four years earlier.
Derek and I met three months after her disappearance.
I felt physically ill when I realized how quickly he had replaced her.
Rachel asked whether Derek ever mentioned Melissa’s pregnancy.
“No.”
“He said she hated children.”
The positive tests proved otherwise.
Police recovered another hidden recording from the house security system.
It showed Margaret speaking with Melissa in the kitchen.
Melissa accused the family of falsifying guardianship evaluations.
She threatened to contact authorities.
Margaret told her she would never leave the property.
The recording ended when Derek entered carrying the wooden rolling pin.
The same rolling pin used on me.
The same kitchen.
The same method of punishment.
The pattern had existed before I arrived.
Walter agreed to cooperate in exchange for consideration.
He admitted helping cover Melissa’s death.
He claimed Derek struck her during an argument.
Margaret ordered staff to clean the kitchen.
Walter used construction equipment to bury the body beneath the garage.
“Why did he help?” I asked.
Detective Ellis looked grim.
“Because Melissa had evidence connecting Walter to the guardianship scheme.”
The second set of remains belonged to Evelyn Hart, a nurse who worked at Mercer Gardens.
Evelyn had reported patients being sedated before signing property transfers.
She vanished six years earlier.
Walter claimed Margaret arranged her death.
Margaret claimed Walter did.
Again, each person blamed the other.
The third set of remains had not been identified.
The investigation expanded nationally.
Families of former Mercer Gardens residents came forward.
They described unanswered calls.
Sudden claims of dementia.
Properties sold without permission.
Relatives banned from visiting.
One woman named Denise Walker discovered her father’s home had been transferred to Blackstone Residential Care while he was recovering from pneumonia.
He died three weeks later.
His medical chart contained sedatives he had never been prescribed.
The same drug was found in my blood after the miscarriage.
I had believed losing the baby was a natural tragedy.
Now doctors reviewed my records.
The toxicology report had noted an unusual sedative.
Derek told me it came from pain medication.
It did not.
Margaret had prepared my tea during the pregnancy.
My miscarriage may have been caused intentionally.
They did not want me to have a child.
A baby would have made leaving more complicated for Derek if he decided to replace me.
I cried until I could no longer breathe.
Nurse Rosa held my hand.
Rachel remained beside the window.
No one told me to be strong.
No one told me everything happened for a reason.
Some things happened because cruel people made cruel choices.
That was the only honest explanation.
The prosecutor added charges involving poisoning and reproductive harm.
Derek sent a message through his attorney.
He claimed Margaret acted alone.
Then the forensic team recovered deleted footage from the night I lost the pregnancy.
Derek stood outside the bedroom while Margaret mixed powder into my tea.
He watched.
He knew.
May you like
And when she asked whether the dosage was enough, he answered.
“If it isn’t, we can try again tomorrow.”
