Chapter 10 - THE ACCUSATION LORRAINE NEVER BELIEVED
The investigator’s interview changed everything.
He had refused Lorraine’s request.
Not because he was noble.
Because manufacturing suspicion was outside his contract and professionally reckless.
He told her he could verify facts.
He could not “establish uncertainty” without evidence.
Lorraine told him to investigate Marin’s Boston trip anyway.
He did.
Hotel.
Conference registration.
Travel schedule.
Former boyfriend.
The result was boring.
Marin attended the conference.
Evan Mitchell lived nearly forty miles away.
There was no evidence they met.
Lorraine received that report seven weeks before the confrontation on the dock.
Then something else happened.
The investigator noticed Lorraine had attached Callum’s pediatric records to an email.
He asked why.
Lorraine responded:
Family medical resemblance complicates the narrative. Do not include unless necessary.
Callum closed his eyes.
Marin could barely speak.
Lorraine knew.
Not scientifically with absolute certainty.
But enough.
She had evidence supporting Marin.
She had an investigation finding nothing suspicious.
She deliberately buried both.
Then continued telling Callum there was “too much uncertainty.”
The earlier details reorganized themselves.
The old hospital envelope Lorraine carried was not evidence against Marin.
It was evidence Lorraine needed hidden.
Her terror when it fell onto the dock had nothing to do with private medical embarrassment.
It could expose that she had possessed contradictory information.
Her focus on Marin’s Boston trip was not born from a genuine discovery.
Lorraine had ordered someone to search for a story after learning Callum might leave the family company.
Her repeated demand for a paternity test was not about answering a question.
A resolved question would eliminate her leverage.
That was why she kept the suspicion alive.
Callum looked at Marin.
“She never believed it.”
“Maybe she convinced herself eventually.”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“She needed me to believe it.”
That was the major truth.
Lorraine did not need Elise to belong to someone else.
She needed Callum uncertain enough to stay dependent on the one person claiming she could protect him from Marin.
His mother.
Callum stood suddenly.
“I’m going to her.”
Marin shook her head.
“No.”
“She did this to us.”
“Yes.”
“I need to hear her say it.”
“She won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
Marin looked at him.
“I know what happens when your mother controls the setting.”
He stopped.
The dock.
The family dinner.
The estate.
Every confrontation had occurred on Lorraine’s ground.
Marin continued.
“If you confront her now, she’ll turn this into another argument about loyalty.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“For once?”
May you like
Marin looked toward Elise sleeping beside them.
“Stop reacting to your mother and decide what kind of man you are without her in the room.”
