Chapter 4 - THE PATIENT WITHOUT A NAMEAgent Ortiz placed the ledger on a banquet table.
The nearest guests moved away from it as though it contained poison.
Each payment had been routed through a Sterling charitable foundation.
The description read long-term neurological care.
No patient address appeared.
No doctor’s name appeared.
Only initials.
L.G.
Maya stared at the entries.
The first payment had been made six weeks after she was found beside the highway.
The most recent had been made eleven days earlier.
“You have been paying for someone’s medical care since my parents disappeared,” Maya said.
Victoria’s expression became cold again.
“The Sterling Foundation supports hundreds of patients.”
“Then tell us who L.G. is,” Ortiz replied.
“I do not manage individual accounts.”
“The authorization bears your personal signature.”
“My staff used signature stamps.”
“Every month for twenty-four years?”
Victoria said nothing.
Marcus examined the ledger.
The payments had been sent through four companies that no longer existed.
The final destination was hidden behind coded banking information.
Ethan stepped forward.
“I know that account.”
Victoria turned toward him.
“Be silent.”
Ethan ignored her.
“It belongs to North Valley Recovery Center.”
Agent Ortiz looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“My mother sent me there three years ago.”
Maya’s eyes narrowed.
“For what?”
Ethan swallowed.
“I had started asking questions about the Vaughn accident.”
Victoria’s composure cracked.
“You ungrateful fool.”
Ethan continued.
“I found correspondence between my father and an executive named Samuel Pike.”
“They discussed clearing a road before Gabriel Vaughn’s testimony.”
“I confronted my mother.”
“She told me I was exhausted and becoming unstable.”
“The next morning, two doctors came to the house.”
“They sedated me.”
Maya stared at him.
“You never told me.”
“I was kept at North Valley for nine days.”
“My mother threatened to have me declared incompetent if I continued investigating.”
“That explains your fear.”
Maya’s voice sharpened.
“It does not excuse your lies.”
“I know.”
Agent Ortiz ordered a team to locate the facility.
Marcus examined the numbers found inside the medal.
“They may be geographic coordinates.”
An investigator entered them into a secure tablet.
A location appeared in the mountains nearly three hours north of the city.
North Valley Recovery Center stood less than five miles away.
Maya looked at Victoria.
“Is my mother there?”
Victoria’s silence answered more loudly than words.
Maya handed Noah to Eleanor.
“I am going.”
Marcus blocked her gently.
“We do not know what is waiting there.”
“That is exactly why I am going.”
“You have a child.”
“And somewhere in that facility, a woman may have spent twenty-four years without hers.”
No one could argue with that.
Ethan stepped toward Maya.
“I will come with you.”
“No.”
“Maya, I know the building.”
“You also knew the beginning of my story and watched me live without it.”
Ethan flinched.
“You will stay here and answer every question they ask.”
Maya looked at Agent Ortiz.
“Do not allow him or Victoria to leave.”
Ortiz nodded.
Eleanor held Noah securely.
“I will protect him.”
Maya kissed her son’s forehead.
Then she turned to Marcus.
“Take me to my mother.”
Two federal vehicles left the Sterling estate before midnight.
Rain began falling as they entered the northern highway.
The sound against the windows stirred another memory inside Maya.
A woman’s voice.
A hand pushing her through a broken door.
A command whispered with desperate urgency.
“Run toward the lights.”
Maya pressed her fingers against her temples.
Marcus noticed.
“What did you see?”
“My mother gave me the medal.”
“She told me not to trust the woman in white.”
Marcus went still.
“What woman?”
“I don’t know.”
Another memory flashed.
White gloves on a steering wheel.
A diamond bracelet.
A voice promising that no Vaughn would survive the night.
Maya opened her eyes.
Victoria Sterling had worn white gloves during every winter gala for decades.
Marcus received a message from Agent Ortiz.
He read it once.
Then again.
“What happened?” Maya asked.
Marcus turned the screen toward her.
North Valley Recovery Center had been warned.
May you like
Someone inside the Sterling estate had contacted the facility.
The patient identified as L.G. was being moved.
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