Chapter 5 - THE NURSE'S CONFESSION
By dawn, Nathaniel had docked at a deserted marina three towns over. He carried the exhausted, shivering girls to a cheap motel, paying in cash he kept in his emergency go-bag. Once they were bundled in scratchy wool blankets, drinking cheap hot chocolate from a vending machine, Nathaniel pulled out a burner phone.
He had to find Vera. The note said 'Mommy Vera.' The diary mentioned Vera. She was the key.
Using his contacts in the underground private intelligence sector, it took him six hours to locate a woman matching the description of Elise’s former private nurse, Vera Jenkins. She was hiding in a dilapidated trailer park in upstate New York, living under an assumed name.
Leaving Marcus's most trusted lieutenant to guard the motel room, Nathaniel drove to the trailer park. He kicked the aluminum door open without knocking. Inside, a frail woman in her fifties shrieked, dropping a teacup. She had a massive, healing burn scar across her left cheek.
"Vera," Nathaniel said.
The woman froze, her eyes welling with tears. "Mr. Cole. You... you found them."
For the next hour, Nathaniel sat at the rickety table and listened to the most horrific story he had ever heard. Vera confessed everything. Vivian had indeed imprisoned Elise. When Elise went into labor, Vivian’s private doctor induced complications. Vivian’s plan was to let the babies die and frame it as a tragic miscarriage. But Vera had drugged the doctor, delivered the twins herself, and smuggled them out in a laundry cart.
"I ran, Mr. Cole. I ran as far as I could," Vera sobbed. "Vivian's men found me a year ago. They set my apartment on fire to kill us. I barely got the girls out. That’s how I got this scar. I knew I couldn't keep running. I knew I was putting them in danger. So I brought them to the lake house. I knew you always went there on the anniversary of Elise's death. I prayed you'd find them."
"And Elise?" Nathaniel asked, his voice hollow. "Did she..."
"She bled out, Mr. Cole. Vivian refused to call an ambulance. She watched her die."
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Nathaniel stood up. The grief that had weighed him down for two years evaporated, replaced by a cold, razor-sharp purpose. He was a businessman who specialized in hostile takeovers. Vivian thought she was playing a family game. She didn't realize she had just triggered a war with a titan.
"Pack your things, Vera," Nathaniel said. "You're testifying. And then, you'll never have to run again."
