Chapter 13 - Why Anna Had Been Watching Rachel for Twelve YearsRachel stared at the photograph until her fingers began to shake.
She was twenty years old in the image.
Anna would have been fifteen.
They had never spoken.
Rachel was certain.
“Why was she there?”
Gerald looked uncomfortable.
“Your father.”
Rachel’s attention snapped toward him.
“What about my father?”
“Claire Bell contacted him.”
“My father was a pediatric surgeon.”
“He was also chairman of St. Matthew’s charitable medical fund.”
Rachel remembered.
Her father, Dr. Samuel Hayes, had spent twenty years raising money for families who couldn’t afford pediatric treatment.
Gerald continued.
“After Claire became ill, she applied for financial assistance.”
Rachel frowned.
“What illness?”
“Ovarian cancer.”
Rachel’s anger dimmed for a second.
Anna had told Michael her mother died with medical debt.
That part was apparently true.
“What happened?”
Gerald looked at the floor.
“Her application was denied.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel laughed bitterly.
“You seem to know everything else.”
“I only know what Anna told me.”
Rachel’s stomach tightened.
“What did she say?”
“That your father personally rejected Claire’s appeal.”
Rachel shook her head.
“He wouldn’t.”
“Maybe he had a reason.”
“He wouldn’t deny cancer treatment because of someone’s name.”
Gerald gave her the photograph.
“Anna believes he did.”
Rachel immediately called her mother.
No answer.
Her mother lived in Florida now and kept boxes from Samuel’s old office in storage.
Rachel left three messages.
Then Rebecca began searching St. Matthew’s archived foundation records.
Hours passed.
At midnight, they found Claire Bell’s application.
Rachel opened the scanned file.
REQUEST: experimental oncology treatment.
COST: $86,000.
STATUS: DENIED.
Signed:
Dr. Samuel Hayes.
Rachel stared.
Michael touched her shoulder.
She pulled away instinctively.
Not because she hated him.
Because she couldn’t process anything else.
Rebecca opened the review notes.
Claire’s request had been denied because the treatment was classified as experimental and the fund’s rules prohibited paying for unapproved procedures.
Rachel exhaled.
“It wasn’t personal.”
But then she found a handwritten appeal.
Please reconsider. I have a daughter. She is fourteen. I am all she has.
Below it was another notation.
Decision unchanged.
S.H.
Rachel closed her eyes.
Anna had been fourteen.
Her mother was dying.
She had begged a wealthy medical charity for money.
Rachel’s father had signed the rejection.
Legally, administratively, perhaps correctly.
But to a terrified teenager, none of that mattered.
The Whitmores destroyed her mother’s career.
The Hayes foundation refused to save her life.
Then Rachel Hayes married Michael Whitmore.
To Anna, the marriage must have looked like the universe laughing at her.
Two families she hated joined together.
Rachel suddenly understood the photograph.
Anna hadn’t been casually present at the college fundraiser.
She had come to see Samuel Hayes.
Perhaps to confront him.
Instead, she saw Rachel.
Healthy.
Privileged.
Smiling beside the father who had denied her mother’s appeal.
Michael spoke carefully.
“This doesn’t excuse anything.”
“I know.”
Rachel’s voice sounded distant.
“But it explains why me.”
Rebecca nodded.
“She isn’t only pursuing money. She’s reenacting what she believes happened to her mother.”
Rachel thought about the ballroom.
Anna making Rachel powerless while everyone believed someone else.
Anna turning Michael against her.
Anna damaging her reputation publicly.
Claire had been accused of theft and unable to defend herself.
Anna had recreated that humiliation for Rachel.
Not randomly.
Deliberately.
Rachel’s phone rang.
Her mother.
Rachel answered immediately.
“Mom, do you remember Claire Bell?”
Silence.
Then:
“Where did you hear that name?”
Rachel stood.
“You know her.”
Her mother’s breathing changed.
“Rachel, I need you to listen to me.”
“What happened?”
“Your father regretted that case for the rest of his life.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“He denied her treatment.”
“He followed the rules.”
“So Anna was right.”
“No.”
Her mother’s voice sharpened.
“That isn’t what happened afterward.”
Rachel stopped.
“What do you mean?”
“Your father tried to help Claire privately.”
Rachel looked at the others.
“How?”
“He offered to pay for the treatment himself.”
Rachel’s heart jumped.
“What happened?”
Her mother hesitated.
“Claire refused.”
“Why would she refuse?”
“Because by then someone else had already offered to pay.”
Rachel gripped the phone.
“Who?”
Her mother answered:
“Richard Whitmore.”
Michael went completely still.
Rachel felt the story rearranging itself again.
Richard had paid Claire to disappear.
Framed her for theft.
Possibly concealed an affair.
Then years later, while she was dying, he offered money again.
But Richard had been dead six years.
Claire died only three years ago.
Rachel frowned.
“Mom, Richard Whitmore died before Claire’s final treatment.”
“I know.”
“Then how could he offer?”
Her mother was silent.
Rachel understood.
“Someone offered it in his name.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Her mother whispered:
“Gerald Mason.”
Everyone in the room turned toward the attorney.
But Gerald was no longer there.
May you like
At some point during the phone call, he had quietly left the house.
And on Michael’s desk, the old Whitmore ledger was missing.
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