Chapter 10 - The Year Rebecca Chose for Emily
Marcus Hale did not look like a villain.
That made Daniel angrier.
The psychologist sat beside his attorney in a bland conference room.
Maya began.
“Did you personally evaluate Emily Mercer?”
“No.”
“Yet you wrote a clinical recommendation.”
“I relied on information provided by caregivers.”
“Which caregivers?”
“Rebecca Sloan.”
“Anyone else?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Mr. Rusk provided background.”
Daniel’s voice turned cold.
“Caleb?”
Maya touched his arm.
Marcus continued.
“Mr. Rusk represented that Mr. Mercer had requested discretion.”
“Did you verify that?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“Harbor Light had received significant foundation support.”
“In other words, you trusted the donors.”
“Yes.”
Maya slid the thirty-day admission form toward him.
“Was that the intended length of stay?”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“No.”
“How long?”
“Twelve months.”
Daniel stood.
Maya stopped him.
Marcus continued quickly.
“Rebecca believed a longer placement might be needed.”
“A year,” Daniel said.
“Yes.”
“My daughter is seven.”
“I understand.”
“No. You apparently didn’t.”
Marcus’s lawyer intervened.
“My client is cooperating.”
Daniel sat again.
Maya asked, “Did Ms. Sloan say why Emily needed to leave immediately after the wedding?”
Marcus nodded.
“She said family restructuring could worsen attachment behaviors.”
“Attachment behaviors?”
“She claimed Emily was fixated on preventing the marriage.”
Daniel felt rage building.
Emily had resisted the marriage because she had seen Rebecca kissing Caleb.
They had turned a child’s truthful fear into a diagnosis.
Marcus produced emails.
Rebecca:
Once Daniel and I are legally married, transition must happen immediately. Delay will let Emily destabilize him.
Another:
Do not communicate directly with Daniel. He becomes emotional about Claire and may reverse decisions already made.
Marcus admitted the center should have contacted Daniel.
He also disclosed something worse.
Rebecca requested restrictions on Emily’s phone calls for the first six weeks.
No direct contact with Daniel unless supervised by the treatment team.
Daniel stared.
“She wanted to isolate her from me.”
Marcus said nothing.
The emails answered.
Maya asked about the twelve-month term.
Marcus opened an older intake plan.
Under “family objective,” Rebecca had written:
Allow household and marital structure to stabilize without child interference.
Daniel whispered, “Child interference.”
He could barely say it.
Then a handwritten note caught Maya’s eye.
C.R. says D.M. becomes easier after wedding.
She looked at Marcus.
“Who is C.R.?”
“Caleb Rusk.”
Daniel felt something inside him settle.
Not anger.
Certainty.
Caleb was part of the child-placement plan.
Not merely the corporate fraud.
Maya asked, “What did Mr. Rusk mean by ‘easier’?”
Marcus shook his head.
“I never asked.”
That failure might cost Marcus his license.
Daniel hoped it did.
Outside, Rebecca was waiting beside her attorney.
Maya immediately objected.
Rebecca raised her hands.
“I’m not here to ambush him.”
Daniel stopped anyway.
“What?”
Rebecca looked exhausted.
“Caleb told Marcus you were drinking heavily.”
Daniel stared.
“I barely drink.”
“I know.”
“He told a psychologist I was drunk?”
“He said after Claire died you sometimes lost entire evenings.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Rebecca continued.
“He was building an incapacity story.”
Maya stepped closer.
“For what purpose?”
Rebecca looked at Daniel.
“Your company documents.”
Daniel understood slowly.
The forged voting agreement contained language allowing Caleb to act if Daniel was “unavailable.”
But legal incapacity required more than a friend’s opinion.
Rebecca continued.
“He wanted records showing instability.”
“And you helped him.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I recorded arguments.”
Daniel stared.
“You provoked me and recorded it.”
“Sometimes.”
His humiliation deepened.
“How long?”
“About a year.”
“Why?”
Rebecca whispered, “Because he said if you ever discovered the financial transfers, we needed leverage.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“So Emily gets diagnosed as troubled, I get diagnosed from a distance as unstable, and you become what?”
“My wife,” Rebecca said.
The words nearly became “your wife,” but she corrected herself.
“And after marriage?”
She looked away.
Maya asked, “Was there a power of attorney?”
Rebecca said nothing.
Daniel’s blood went cold.
“There was.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Caleb had one drafted.”
“Signed?”
“I don’t know.”
“With my real signature?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know.”
Rebecca’s face crumpled.
“It was supposed to become useful only if something happened to you.”
Daniel took one step closer.
“What was supposed to happen to me?”
“Nothing physical.”
“Then what?”
Rebecca whispered, “A breakdown.”
Daniel stared at her.
The wedding, Emily’s disappearance, the corporate vote, the honeymoon, the recordings.
He finally saw the architecture.
They intended to separate him from his daughter.
Create panic.
Trigger conflict.
Then present him to the board as unstable while Caleb exercised forged authority.
May you like
Rebecca whispered, “You were never supposed to find the suitcase.”
That sentence frightened Daniel more than anything she had admitted before.
