Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO SENT THE MESSAGES
The anonymous sender finally agreed to meet at a closed riverside café outside Savannah. Marianne, Evelyn, and Bennett arrived early. At noon, a young woman entered wearing a gray coat and carrying a laptop.
Her name was Rachel Pierce. She was Dr. Nolan Pierce's daughter.
Rachel worked as a compliance analyst for a medical billing company. Six months earlier, she had noticed false claims connected to her father's patients. Derek's name appeared repeatedly. When she confronted her father, he said he owed Derek a debt and warned her to remain silent.
Rachel discovered the truth by reading encrypted emails. Years earlier, Pierce had been addicted to prescription medication. Thomas Cole caught him stealing drugs from the industrial clinic where they both worked. Derek, then twenty, offered to keep Thomas silent in exchange for Pierce's help changing the life-insurance paperwork.
"Did Derek kill my husband?" Marianne asked.
Rachel's eyes filled with tears. "I don't know. But my father wrote that Thomas was given something before he collapsed."
She handed Bennett a drive containing emails, billing files, and audio recordings. One recording captured Celeste discussing the hospital plan. Another included Derek saying, "Once Mom is declared incompetent, everything becomes mine. If she wins anything or inherits anything, it goes into the guardianship estate."
That explained how he knew to prepare for unexpected wealth. He did not know about the lottery specifically. He had designed a net to capture anything Marianne might ever receive.
Before Rachel could explain who financed the private mortgage, a truck crashed through the café's front windows.
The driver fled. No one was seriously hurt, but Rachel's laptop disappeared during the chaos. The drive Bennett held was only a partial copy.
Security cameras identified the truck as belonging to Grant Coastal Development, Celeste's father's company. The company had offered to buy Marianne's entire neighborhood for a luxury project. Marianne had refused to sell. With Derek controlling her estate, the last remaining house would have been transferred.
The conspiracy was larger than family greed. Her home was the final property blocking a hundred-million-dollar development.
That night, Derek called Marianne from an unknown number.
"You don't understand what you're doing," he said. "People more powerful than me need that house."
"And what do you need?"
For a moment, he sounded like the frightened boy she remembered.
"I need you to forgive me before they decide I'm a problem too."
A door slammed behind him. Celeste's voice ordered him to hang up.
May you like
The line went dead.
Marianne realized Derek was both perpetrator and disposable witness.
