Chapter 10 - The Mother Who May Have SurvivedJenna’s call ended before detectives could trace it.
The location signal passed through three courthouse networks and an offshore server owned by Hayes Biomedical.
Thomas Mitchell’s appearance confirmed another staged death.
Two fathers—Richard Hayes and Thomas Mitchell—had shaped Eleanor and Mark’s lives from hiding.
The marriage may have been a merger between families involved in the original custody fraud.
Mark was shown the recording of his father.
His reaction appeared genuine.
He stood behind interview-room glass, staring at the screen.
“My father died in a car accident.”
“No body was recovered,” Detective Reed said.
“My mother identified him.”
“Your mother signed a sealed cremation order.”
Mark sat down.
Thomas raised him through fear and competition. He taught Mark that emotional weakness allowed other people to control property.
When Thomas supposedly died, Mark received a modest trust with one condition: he could access additional funds after marrying a Hayes descendant.
Mark claimed he did not understand the clause when he met Eleanor.
Later, Richard explained it.
“Did you marry her for money?” Reed asked.
“No.”
“Did you stay after learning about the trust because of money?”
Mark looked down.
“Yes.”
“Did you drug her?”
“Yes.”
The confession came quietly.
“Why?”
“My father contacted me. He said Eleanor’s mother was dangerous and the condition had returned. He said medication would reveal the truth.”
“You watched Brooke crush tablets.”
“I knew by then.”
Mark’s initial manipulation may have begun through inherited lies.
The later acts were deliberate.
He admitted using April’s tablet to store forged evidence because Thomas instructed him.
The original device contained family recordings Mark did not want April to see.
One came from Marianne.
Thomas gave Mark the tablet years earlier, saying it had belonged to a Hayes employee.
Mark never realized the device had been connected to April’s school account until files began syncing.
April had been carrying an object tied to Marianne before she understood its importance.
“How could my mother appear on a tablet made years later?” Eleanor asked.
Jenna’s recorded statement offered an answer.
The original device contained digital copies of old clinic tapes. Thomas had transferred them while building the custody case.
One file showed Marianne after her reported death.
The date was twelve years later.
She sat inside a private medical room wearing a hospital gown.
Richard stood beside her.
He asked whether she remembered Eleanor.
Marianne answered:
“My daughter thinks I’m dead.”
Richard said, “That keeps her obedient.”
If the timestamp was genuine, Marianne survived the seizure.
Her death had been staged.
Eleanor could barely breathe.
All those years of mourning might have been another instrument.
The original tablet also contained notes identifying the facility where Marianne was held.
Jenna claimed Richard now possessed it.
She had tried to take the device from Mark before the hearing, replacing it with her copy containing enough evidence to expose the drugging.
But April brought the copy Jenna intended for court, while Richard’s people seized the original from Jenna’s apartment.
That explained the duplicate backpack and confusion.
Jenna had attempted to expose Mark while preserving the deeper files for investigators.
Her plan failed.
Yet she still helped forge evidence and manipulate court access.
She had become another person who used wrongdoing to fight wrongdoing.
Judge Parker requested a warrant for Hayes Biomedical’s private medical network.
The corporate board resisted.
April’s trust technically controlled the shares, but Mark’s custody petition had frozen voting authority.
A temporary independent director allowed investigators limited access.
Patient records showed one woman registered under the name Mary Harlow.
Age sixty-two.
Long-term memory impairment.
No family contacts.
The photograph resembled Marianne.
The patient had been transferred seventy-two hours earlier.
Destination withheld under a court order signed by Thomas Mitchell.
The order named the receiving guardian.
Eleanor Hayes Mitchell.
Someone had forged Eleanor’s signature again.
Official records now showed Eleanor voluntarily taking custody of her mother.
If Marianne disappeared or died, authorities could blame Eleanor.
The fathers were preparing another manufactured crime.
Then April remembered something.
“Grandma was in Dad’s car.”
Eleanor turned.
“When?”
“Last winter. A lady was sleeping in the back seat. Dad said she was a patient.”
April had seen Marianne months before the hearing.
May you like
Mark had transported Eleanor’s mother while pretending she was dead.
👉 The original tablet may prove Marianne survived, but forged guardianship papers positioned Eleanor to take the blame for whatever Richard and Thomas planned to do to her next.
