Chapter 5 - The Last Secret in the Nursery
Federal agents searched for Thomas.
Evan returned to the east wing.
Something bothered him.
Thomas had spent sixteen years protecting the Mercer family.
If he were guilty, why preserve evidence against Charles?
Why allow Evan to hear Caroline's recording?
Grace followed him into the nursery.
Lily stayed with Rebecca.
They searched the hidden compartment again.
Grace noticed something.
“The wall is deeper than this.”
They removed the panel.
Behind it was another cavity.
Inside sat a small metal case.
Caroline had created two hiding places.
The first was meant to be found.
The second wasn't.
Inside were documents and a memory card.
The card contained a video recorded the night before Caroline died.
Caroline sat facing the camera.
“If Evan sees this, I failed.”
She explained everything.
Charles was stealing.
Victor was helping him.
Thomas discovered it and secretly aided Caroline.
Thomas was innocent.
But there was another person.
Someone who learned Caroline planned to expose the fraud.
Someone with more to lose than money.
Caroline named him.
Dr. Samuel Voss.
Evan's neurologist.
The same physician who had treated Evan's insomnia for three years.
Voss had been Charles Mercer's private doctor.
He had also prescribed Caroline medication during the final months of her life.
Caroline discovered Voss had been falsifying medical records used to conceal Charles's declining cognitive health while Charles continued signing billion-dollar contracts.
Exposure would destroy Voss.
The video ended.
Evan immediately called Reed.
Then he remembered something.
His sleeping medication.
Voss prescribed it.
For three years.
Evan sent the pills for emergency analysis.
The results arrived hours later.
The medication was not what the label claimed.
It contained a stimulant compound capable of fragmenting sleep.
Voss hadn't failed to cure Evan.
He had been keeping him sick.
Why?
Because exhaustion made Evan unfocused.
Dependent.
Easy to manipulate.
Rebecca reviewed three years of corporate decisions.
During Evan's worst periods, Victor had gained extraordinary control.
The insomnia had been engineered.
Evan felt violated in a way he couldn't describe.
For 1,087 nights, he had blamed his own mind.
The truth was simpler.
Someone had been poisoning his sleep.
The FBI raided Voss's clinic.
Empty.
He had fled.
Thomas was found hours later in an abandoned office.
Alive.
He had disappeared because Voss threatened his family.
Victor recovered and confirmed everything.
The case seemed nearly complete.
Except Voss remained missing.
That night, Evan refused medication.
Lily read to him.
He slept eight uninterrupted hours.
When he woke, Grace was crying quietly in the hallway.
“What happened?”
She showed him her phone.
A message.
One photograph.
Lily's school.
Taken that morning.
Beneath it were six words.
YOU FOUND CAROLINE'S SECRET. NOW STOP.
Evan looked toward Lily's bedroom.
The door was open.
May you like
The bed was empty.
And the one-eared rabbit lay alone on the floor.
