Chapter 5 - MY MOTHER'S COFFIN HAD BEEN EMPTY
Maeve remembered the funeral.
White roses.
Closed casket.
Her father telling her cancer had changed Elizabeth too much and he wanted the girls to remember her as she was.
Maeve believed him.
She had been nineteen.
Grief made children of everyone.
“Where was she?”
Richard would not look at her.
“A private medical facility.”
“Alive?”
Silence.
Maeve’s chair scraped backward.
“Was she alive?”
“Yes.”
Caroline whispered:
“Maeve…”
Maeve turned.
“You knew?”
“No.”
For once, Caroline sounded genuinely frightened.
Richard explained.
Elizabeth had not been dying from cancer.
Not exactly.
She had cancer.
Treatable.
But during treatment, doctors discovered neurological symptoms.
Confusion.
Memory loss.
Paranoia.
Richard claimed she became unstable.
“She accused everyone of stealing.”
Leo said quietly:
“Was she wrong?”
Richard’s face hardened.
Maeve understood.
Her mother had discovered the financial theft before she became ill.
Richard moved her into a private facility under another name.
Then told Maeve she died.
“Why fake the funeral?”
“She tried to leave.”
“So?”
“She wasn’t safe.”
“According to who?”
“A physician.”
“Name.”
Richard hesitated.
“Dr. Peter Lawson.”
Sofia began searching.
Leo’s face had changed.
He knew the name.
Maeve noticed.
“You know him.”
Leo nodded.
“He treated my father.”
“For?”
“Before he died.”
Leo’s father died nine years earlier from a sudden stroke.
Maeve felt the pattern forming.
Too many family medical secrets.
“Where is Mom now?”
Richard looked at the table.
Maeve nearly screamed.
“WHERE?”
Caroline flinched.
Her father finally whispered:
“I don’t know.”
Maeve stared.
“You lost her?”
“No.”
“The facility closed seven years ago.”
“And?”
“She was transferred.”
“To where?”
“I was told Wisconsin.”
“You were told?”
“She stopped recognizing me.”
Maeve felt fury become something clean.
“You buried her publicly, stole her shares, gave mine to Caroline, then stopped asking where she went?”
Richard looked sick.
“It wasn’t like that.”
“It is exactly like that.”
Leo asked:
“Name of the facility.”
“St. Augustine Behavioral Center.”
Sofia found it.
Closed after state investigations.
Patient abuse.
Fraudulent guardianships.
Illegal medication practices.
Maeve’s knees weakened.
“Guardianship?”
Her father had become Elizabeth’s legal guardian after she was declared incompetent.
That gave him control of her assets.
Her voting rights.
Her medical decisions.
Everything.
Then Maeve understood why her mother’s thirty-five percent could be redirected.
“Dad.”
She looked at him.
“You didn’t wait until Mom died to take her company.”
Richard closed his eyes.
“No.”
“You had her declared incompetent first.”
Caroline whispered:
“Oh my God.”
Maeve looked at her.
“Now you’re shocked?”
“I didn’t know this.”
Maeve believed her.
Not because Caroline deserved trust.
Because her horror looked too ugly to fake.
Then Sofia found an archived state patient list from St. Augustine.
Elizabeth did appear.
Not Sullivan.
Elizabeth Lane.
Her maiden name.
Transfer destination seven years ago:
Lakeview Residential Care.
Milwaukee.
Sofia searched.
Still operating.
Maeve was already standing.
“I’m going.”
Leo stood too.
“No.”
She turned on him.
“Excuse me?”
“Not no, you can’t go.”
He lifted his coat.
“No, you’re not going alone.”
Maeve almost argued.
Then stopped.
Because for once, someone was not telling her what to do.
He was offering to walk beside her.
They drove through the night.
At 4:38 a.m., Lakeview confirmed an Elizabeth Lane had lived there.
Maeve’s heart pounded.
“Can I see her?”
The receptionist’s expression changed.
“I’m sorry.”
Maeve stopped breathing.
“She died?”
“No.”
“She was discharged eleven months ago.”
“To who?”
The receptionist checked.
Authorized family pickup:
Caroline Sullivan.
Maeve slowly turned toward her sister.
May you like
Caroline had claimed she knew nothing.
Yet her name was on the form that took their mother out of the facility.
