Chapter 5 - THE FOUNDATION BOTTLE
The Vale Family Foundation funded children’s hospitals, trauma units, and grief programs.
Natalie had built it.
After her death, Adrian could barely enter the foundation office without seeing her at the conference table, barefoot under the chair, arguing about budgets with anyone who thought generosity and accounting were opposites.
Now a discontinued sedative in his baby’s blood pointed back to that foundation.
“Who approved the purchase?” Adrian asked.
Dr. Cole shook her head. “The pharmacy only has the buyer name. You’ll need your records.”
Vanessa reached for her purse.
Adrian blocked the door.
“Sit down.”
“You cannot imprison me in a hospital room.”
“No. But hospital security can keep you away from Emma while police review footage of you pushing her stroller.”
Graham stepped in. “Adrian—”
“Not another word.”
For the first time in fifteen years, Graham Holt looked at him with something close to hatred.
Clara noticed.
So did Olivia.
At 2:40 a.m., Adrian’s CFO sent encrypted access to the foundation’s archived purchase records.
Olivia searched the drug name.
One result appeared.
A purchase from eighteen months earlier.
Authorized by NATALIE VALE.
Adrian stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
Natalie had been dead for twenty-six months.
Clara leaned closer. “Maybe it’s an old account code.”
“No.” Adrian’s voice dropped. “Her digital authorization died when she did.”
Olivia whispered, “Someone used Mom’s identity.”
The authorization certificate had been reactivated for nine minutes.
Nine minutes was enough to approve the drug purchase and seven other transactions totaling $3.8 million.
Vanessa stopped arguing.
Adrian looked at her.
She looked away.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did Graham?”
“Ask him.”
Graham had already left.
Adrian’s phone rang.
His head of corporate cybersecurity spoke without greeting.
“We traced the certificate activation.”
“Where?”
“Your house.”
“Which terminal?”
A pause.
“The nursery.”
Adrian turned toward Emma, asleep behind the glass.
“That’s not possible.”
“It came from the old wall port behind the built-in cabinet. The one installed when Natalie used the nursery as an office before Olivia was born.”
Adrian remembered the port.
He also remembered having it sealed during renovation.
The technician continued.
“Someone reopened it.”
Clara looked at him.
“Who had access during the renovation?”
Adrian knew the answer before he spoke.
“Mason supervised security.”
Olivia shook her head.
“No. Someone else was there every day.”
Adrian looked at his daughter.
May you like
“Who?”
“Graham.”
