Chapter 6 - THE THERAPIST’S FILES Dr. Sylvia Trent operated a private adolescent clinic in a converted Victorian house outside Dayton.
When police arrived, the receptionist said Sylvia had canceled every appointment and left town.
Her office computer had been wiped.
The paper files remained.
Leah’s folder contained twenty-three session notes.
She had attended two sessions.
The remaining records described conversations that never happened. They claimed Leah fantasized about being rescued by Elias, injured herself to punish Miranda, and felt “competitive resentment” toward Evan.
Each fabricated entry supported removing Leah from home and placing her in a restricted treatment center.
The recommended facility was owned through a company connected to Lucas Venn.
Evan’s file was worse.
Sylvia diagnosed him with violent tendencies and paranoid delusions after he threatened to report Miranda. She recommended temporary isolation from friends and extended family.
Miranda had not sent him to boarding school.
She sent him to Sylvia’s residential program.
He escaped three weeks earlier, returned secretly to the house, and hid in the attic while gathering evidence.
“He was above me all that time,” Leah whispered.
“He was trying to help,” Elias said.
“He was scared to come into my room.”
“He may have believed Miranda would catch both of you.”
Leah understood fear.
It still hurt.
A nurse at Sylvia’s clinic agreed to cooperate. She had seen Evan brought in again the previous evening, sedated and struggling.
Sylvia planned to transfer him before dawn.
The nurse copied the destination from a medical transport form: a psychiatric facility in Kentucky.
Police stopped the transport van on Interstate 75.
The driver surrendered.
Evan was not inside.
The stretcher held a mannequin beneath the blanket.
Sylvia had created another route.
Detective Vega traced a prescription filled under Evan’s name to a small airport. Security footage showed Sylvia escorting a hooded teenager toward a private charter terminal.
Lucas Venn’s company had paid for a flight to Charleston, West Virginia.
The aircraft never departed.
Its flight plan was a diversion.
Airport cameras captured Sylvia leaving alone through an employee gate thirty minutes later. Evan’s hooded figure remained inside the terminal.
Officers searched storage rooms and maintenance areas.
Aaron found him in a locked baggage office.
He was unconscious but alive.
At the hospital, Evan woke with Leah sitting outside his room. She did not enter until he asked.
His face was bruised. A bandage covered one wrist.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“For what?”
“For believing her.”
Leah sat beside the bed.
“You believed what kept you safe.”
“I watched her hurt you and still waited.”
“You recorded it.”
“Too late.”
The witness carried guilt almost as heavy as the victim.
Evan told Vega that Miranda and Lucas had been stealing from Leah’s trust since Ethan died. When Ethan discovered missing funds, he prepared new guardianship papers naming Elias.
Lucas learned about them.
The night before Ethan’s crash, Evan overheard Miranda and Lucas arguing in the garage.
“I recorded them,” he said. “That’s the other video.”
“Where is it?” Vega asked.
Evan looked toward Elias.
“Ethan hid it inside his phone. But it needs Leah’s face to unlock the private folder.”
The phone remained in police evidence.
Technicians activated it and opened the encrypted archive with Leah’s facial recognition.
The first video showed Miranda beside Ethan’s car while Lucas crouched near the front wheel.
The second showed someone else entering the garage.
A police uniform filled the frame.
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The officer’s face remained hidden.
👉 Evan had survived long enough to expose Lucas, but the recording placed an unknown police officer beside Ethan’s car before the fatal crash.
