Chapter 4: The Attorney They Didn't Expect
Carol Reyes walked through the hospital entrance forty minutes later wearing a gray blazer over a dark shirt, a leather document bag over one shoulder, and the expression of someone who had spent twenty years watching powerful men underestimate her.
She was exactly what I needed.
"Where are they?" she said by way of greeting.
"Hallway.
Three of them.
Plus an unknown male in a suit who's been standing close to Evelyn."
"Describe him."
"Late fifties.
Silver tie.
He kept his hands in his pockets the whole time I watched him."
Carol's eyes moved briefly toward the nurses' station.
"That's probably their family attorney.
Gerald Fitch.
He represents about a third of the old money in this county." She set her bag down on the chair beside Maya's bed and looked at my daughter directly.
"Maya.
I'm Carol Reyes.
I'm going to help your mother tonight, and then I'm going to help you for as long as this takes.
Can you tell me, in your own words, what happened?"
Maya looked at me.
"She's on our side," I said.
Maya told her.
All of it.
The locked guest house.
The phone taken away.
Julian's warning about Dr.
Harmon.
The bruises she couldn't fully explain because she'd been so disoriented she wasn't certain of the exact sequence of events.
She spoke slowly, then faster, then slowly again when her voice broke.
Carol wrote without interrupting.
When Maya finished, Carol looked up.
"Diane.
Where is she?"
"Gastonia, hopefully.
She left twenty minutes ago."
"She needs to stay off social media and not discuss this with anyone until I've spoken with her.
Can you reach her?"
"I have the number Maya gave me."
"Good." Carol closed her notepad.
"Now.
The backdated psychiatric evaluation is the most urgent problem.
If Fitch has already filed it anywhere — a court, a medical board, anywhere — we need to know tonight, not tomorrow." She stood.
"I'm going to go introduce myself."
I followed her into the hallway.
Julian saw Carol first.
His eyes moved to her document bag, then to me, then back to Carol.
Something shifted in his face — not fear exactly, but a recalculation.
Carol walked directly to Gerald Fitch.
"Gerald," she said pleasantly.
"It's been a while."
Fitch's hands came out of his pockets.
"Carol.
I wasn't aware you were involved in this matter."
"I wasn't, until about an hour ago." She smiled.
"I'd like to know whether any documentation pertaining to Maya Vance's mental health has been filed in any court or medical proceeding in the last thirty days."
Fitch glanced at Evelyn.
"That's not something I'm prepared to discuss in a hospital corridor."
"That's fine," Carol said.
"I'll file the discovery request in the morning.
I simply thought it would be more efficient to ask directly." She tilted her head slightly.
"Especially given that any backdated filing, once discovered, tends to complicate things considerably for everyone involved in its preparation."
The word backdated landed like a stone dropped into still water.
Julian's jaw tightened.
"We don't know what you're talking about."
"Of course not," Carol said.
"My mistake."
Evelyn stepped forward.
Her voice was controlled but the warmth had left it entirely.
"Colonel, I strongly suggest you consider what you're doing.
You are about to damage your daughter's future over a misunderstanding.
Julian loves Maya.
This family has given her opportunities she never would have had otherwise."
"What opportunities?" I said.
Evelyn blinked.
"Name one thing your family gave my daughter that she couldn't have built herself."
The silence stretched.
Marcus broke it.
"This is pointless.
Fitch, let's—"
"She has a recording," I said.
Nobody moved.
"A witness took a video that night at the estate.
Audio is clear.
Julian's voice is identifiable." I looked at Julian.
"You told my daughter that you'd already spoken to a psychiatrist.
That the paperwork was dated three weeks ago." I paused.
"Would you like to tell me which part of that I'm misquoting?"
Julian's eyes went to Fitch.
Fitch's hands went back into his pockets.
Evelyn's smile, for the first time since I had walked into that hospital, did not return.
"We're done here tonight," Fitch said quietly.
"Julian.
Marcus.
Evelyn.
Let's go."
They moved toward the exit.
Julian was the last to turn.
"This isn't over," he said.
"No," I agreed.
"It isn't."
He left.
Carol watched the elevator doors close, then turned to me.
"He'll move fast now that he knows about the recording.
We have maybe twelve hours before they try to locate Diane."
"What do we do?"
"Tonight?" She picked up her bag.
"We get Maya's injuries formally documented by the attending physician, we get Diane's phone contents transferred to a secure backup, and I make three calls." She looked at me steadily.
"And you stay calm, because the next few days are going to require everything you have."
I nodded.
"Carol," I said.
"Thank you."
She shook her head once.
"Don't thank me yet.
Thank me when it's done."
She walked back toward Maya's room.
I stood in the empty hallway for a moment, looking at the closed elevator doors.
Julian had said it wasn't over.
He was right about that.
May you like
But he had said it like a threat.
I heard it like a promise.
