Chapter 20: The Missing Hospital Record

The message from the unknown number wouldn't leave my mind.

Ask Graham about the missing hospital record.

I found Graham alone in the hallway outside Hart's office.

“Did you know a hospital record connected to Marcus disappeared?” I asked.

He looked at me for a long moment.

Then he sighed.

“Yes.”

My heart tightened.

“When?”

“Eight years ago.”

“Why didn't you tell us?”

Graham looked ashamed.

“Because I thought it concerned only Marcus.”

He explained that after Marcus's death, he had tried to obtain his complete medical records from the hospital.

The records showed Marcus had survived the accident thirty-two years earlier.

But one page was missing.

It was the page documenting a visitor who had come to see him while he was recovering.

“Who was the visitor?” I asked.

“I didn't know.”

Graham pulled an old envelope from his coat.

Inside was a photocopy of the hospital's visitor log.

The original page was missing, but someone had photographed it years ago.

There were three names on it.

Celeste Bellamy.

Adrian Bellamy.

And Dr. Samuel Reed.

I recognized the third name.

Samuel Reed had been the doctor who signed Marcus's discharge papers.

Hart immediately began searching the medical records.

“He's still practicing,” she said.

“And according to the hospital's archived system, he requested that Marcus's records be sealed eight years ago.”

Graham's face darkened.

“Why would a doctor do that?”

Hart looked at me.

“Because someone asked him to.”

We contacted Dr. Reed that evening.

He agreed to meet us at his clinic.

The elderly doctor looked exhausted when he saw Graham.

“I wondered when you would come.”

Graham's voice was low.

“What did you hide?”

Dr. Reed sat down.

“The night of Marcus's accident, he wasn't alone.”

I leaned forward.

“Who was with him?”

“Celeste.”

Graham closed his eyes.

Dr. Reed continued.

“She arrived at the hospital before you did. Marcus was conscious, and he told me something important.”

“What?”

“He said the accident wasn't random.”

The room went silent.

“He said someone had followed him.”

Graham whispered, “Did he identify the person?”

Dr. Reed nodded.

“He said it was Adrian.”

My breath caught.

But Dr. Reed raised a hand.

“Marcus didn't say Adrian caused the accident.”

That distinction mattered.

“He said Adrian had followed him because he was trying to stop him from taking the financial documents to you.”

Graham looked devastated.

“And Celeste?”

“She arrived afterward.”

Dr. Reed opened an old medical file.

“Marcus told me that Celeste knew about the documents and that she had threatened him.”

“Did he say what she threatened?” I asked.

The doctor looked directly at me.

“She threatened to tell Graham that Tessa wasn't his daughter.”

Graham's hands began to shake.

Dr. Reed continued.

“Marcus believed Celeste would do anything to keep the truth hidden.”

“Why did you seal the record?” Hart asked.

Dr. Reed lowered his head.

“Because Celeste came to me eight years later with a settlement agreement.”

“She paid you?”

“She threatened my medical license first. Then she offered money.”

Hart's expression hardened.

“Do you still have the original page?”

Dr. Reed nodded.

He opened a locked cabinet.

From inside, he removed a sealed envelope.

“I couldn't destroy it.”

He handed it to Hart.

Inside was the missing hospital record.

It contained Marcus's statement from the night of the accident.

At the bottom was a final handwritten sentence.

“If anything happens to me, the person who benefits most from my silence is Celeste Bellamy.”

Graham stared at the page.

Then his phone rang.

It was the prosecutor's office.

The official investigation had begun.

And Celeste was no longer being treated as a grieving mother-in-law who had taken a prank too far.

She was being investigated for fraud, evidence tampering, financial crimes, and conspiracy.

I looked at Owen's photograph on my phone.

The revenge I had wanted in my previous life had once meant making them suffer.

Now I understood something better.

Justice didn't need my anger.

It only needed the truth.

And we finally had enough of it to bring the entire Bellamy family story crashing down.