Chapter 11 - The Dead Woman's Room
They left the hospital under private security before dawn.
Not for Blackwood Estate.
Marcus drove Elena to a small lake house his father had owned through a shell company. Victoria had never liked the place. That made it the closest thing they had to safe.
Owen met them there with a bandage on his head and a metal lockbox.
"I stole this from the west wing last year," he said.
Marcus stared at him. "You knew for a year?"
"I knew your mother kept records. I didn't know she started dosing Elena until three months ago."
Elena's voice went cold. "And you waited."
Owen looked ashamed. "Victoria owns my house. Paid my wife's medical bills. She knows where my daughter works. Fear makes cowards out of people who swear they're decent."
Elena wanted to hate him. She mostly did.
Inside the box were research notes, cassette tapes, and photographs of Celeste Blackwood.
One tape was labeled C.B. FINAL SESSION.
Marcus found an old player in a cabinet.
A woman's shaky voice filled the room.
"Victoria says the red dress helps me focus. She says when I see it, I should remember the truth. But I don't know which truth she means anymore."
Elena gripped the table.
The tape continued.
"I keep seeing things. Broken glass. Blood. My brother shouting. Victoria says I do it to myself. Then she gives me tea and I forget why I'm afraid."
Marcus sat down hard.
Celeste had lived Elena's nightmare decades earlier.
Then another voice entered the recording - younger, unmistakably Victoria.
"Tell the tape what you did to your baby."
Celeste began sobbing.
Owen switched it off.
"She miscarried two days later," he said. "Official cause was a fall down the east staircase."
Marcus's face had gone gray.
Elena whispered, "Your mother killed her."
"Maybe."
"Marcus."
"I said maybe because I need the truth, not because I'm defending her."
The lake house phone rang.
No one had given Victoria the number.
May you like
Marcus answered.
Victoria said, "If you play the final ten minutes of that tape, your marriage ends tonight.
