Chapter 15 - Beatrice Finally Told the Whole TruthBeatrice asked Alistair to meet privately.
Not at the house.
Not with the children nearby.
They sat in a quiet café on a Tuesday morning.
Beatrice looked nervous.
“What is it?”
She folded her hands.
“I haven't told police everything.”
Alistair's expression changed.
“Why?”
“Because I was ashamed.”
“Of what?”
“I knew more.”
His stomach tightened.
“About the abuse?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then?”
Beatrice looked down.
“Corinne asked me to help prepare the trip.”
Alistair stared.
“What?”
“Not knowing what it was.”
He remained silent.
Beatrice continued quickly.
“She asked me to pack clothes.”
“When?”
“Three days before the video.”
“For the children.”
“Yes.”
“And you did.”
“I packed Theo's suitcase.”
Alistair leaned back.
“Why?”
“She told me you had agreed to send them to a special school.”
The lie again.
“Did you believe her?”
“At first.”
“What changed?”
“She wouldn't tell me the school's name.”
“That was enough?”
“No.”
Beatrice's eyes filled.
“She asked where the passports were.”
Alistair stared.
“What did you say?”
“That they were in the safe.”
“And?”
“She said she knew.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Anything else?”
“She asked me to pack Willa's medication.”
“Willa doesn't take medication.”
“Exactly.”
Alistair frowned.
“What medication?”
Beatrice opened her purse.
She removed a photocopy of a prescription label.
Willa Grant.
A medication Alistair did not recognize.
“What is that?”
“I found the bottle in Corinne's bathroom.”
His chest tightened.
“Did Willa ever take this?”
“Not that I know.”
“What is it?”
“Something for anxiety, I think.”
Alistair stood almost involuntarily.
“Corinne had medication prescribed to my daughter?”
“I don't know.”
“By who?”
Beatrice pointed.
Dr. Julianne Frost.
The counselor.
Alistair's anger went cold.
“Why didn't you tell me immediately?”
“I took a photograph. I thought maybe I was misunderstanding.”
“Did you ask Corinne?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“That Willa needed help sleeping.”
“Without my knowledge.”
“Yes.”
Alistair called Rachel before the conversation ended.
Within hours, Dr. Frost's records were requested.
The truth was complicated.
The prescription had been recommended but never formally dispensed through a pharmacy in Willa's name.
The bottle Beatrice saw was a sample with a printed patient label from Dr. Frost's office.
Willa insisted she had never knowingly taken it.
A toxicology review couldn't establish historical use.
But the fact mattered.
Corinne had been exploring medication without Alistair.
Dr. Frost claimed she believed both parents consented.
Again.
Always the same failure.
No independent verification.
Alistair wanted her license revoked.
Rachel warned him not to decide outcomes before investigations.
He hated hearing that.
Beatrice had more.
“Corinne asked me to tell Theo the trip was a vacation.”
“What?”
“She said not to mention school.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“When did you realize something was wrong?”
“The morning I recorded her.”
“Only then?”
Beatrice began crying.
“Earlier.”
Alistair stared.
She continued.
“I saw Malcolm's transport papers.”
“And?”
“They described the children as likely to resist.”
His jaw tightened.
“What did that mean?”
“I don't know. But I didn't like it.”
“Why didn't you call me then?”
Beatrice looked at him.
“Because Corinne showed me a message.”
“What message?”
“One from you.”
His stomach dropped.
“What did it say?”
Beatrice had photographed it.
She opened her phone.
A screenshot.
ALISTAIR: Do whatever you need to do. I can't keep dealing with this.
His face changed.
“I wrote that.”
Beatrice nodded.
He remembered.
Corinne had texted during a board meeting.
Theo won't stop fighting bedtime. Willa is defending him. I cannot keep doing this alone.
Alistair had replied impatiently.
Do whatever you need to do. I can't keep dealing with this right now.
He had meant:
Handle bedtime.
Corinne had shown Beatrice only the message.
And framed it as consent for placement.
Alistair sat back.
Another real fragment.
Another catastrophic reinterpretation.
“I gave her the sentence.”
Beatrice shook her head.
“You did not give her permission.”
“No.”
“But I gave her language.”
He looked at the screen.
Do whatever you need to do.
How many times had he outsourced parenting because work felt urgent?
Beatrice whispered:
“I believed it.”
“Why wouldn't you?”
She started crying.
Alistair didn't absolve himself or her.
He simply said:
“We both should have asked.”
“Yes.”
Then Beatrice revealed the final piece.
“I saw Corinne hide something in Malcolm's car.”
“When?”
“The day police came.”
“What?”
“A red folder.”
“Before officers arrived?”
“While I was locked in the laundry room with Theo.”
Alistair called Brennan.
Police had searched the car but no red folder had been logged.
Malcolm may have moved it before detention.
What was inside?
Beatrice didn't know.
But she'd seen the label.
GRANT — POST-PLACEMENT.
Alistair felt cold.
The plan didn't end when the children reached Montana.
May you like
There had been an entire phase after.
And whatever Corinne intended to do next was important enough that Malcolm made the folder disappear before police could find it.
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