Chapter 3 - The Girl in Room 417The next morning, Victoria took us to Massachusetts General Hospital.
Room 417.
I stood outside for almost a minute before entering.
Through the glass, I saw her.
Emily Morgan.
Nineteen years old.
Thin.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes exactly like my father’s.
She was sitting in bed reading.
A heart monitor beeped beside her.
Victoria entered first.
Emily smiled.
“You came back.”
Then she saw Daniel and me.
The smile disappeared.
Victoria said:
“Emily, these are…”
“I know.”
That surprised me.
“You know who we are?”
She nodded.
“Sarah and Daniel Bennett.”
My name sounded strange in her voice.
“You’ve seen us?”
“Online.”
Of course.
Bennett Medical was public.
Daniel ran operations.
I headed the family foundation.
Our photographs were everywhere.
I sat carefully.
“Why didn’t you contact us?”
Emily looked genuinely confused.
“For what?”
“You’re our sister.”
She smiled sadly.
“That doesn’t mean you owe me anything.”
That sentence hurt.
Daniel asked:
“What happened to the money Dad was sending?”
Emily’s expression changed.
“I don’t know.”
“Mom said it stopped.”
“When I was seven.”
Exactly twelve years earlier.
Clara, Emily’s mother, worked two jobs afterward.
Cleaning offices at night.
Reception work during the day.
She eventually sold their house.
Then Clara died from ovarian cancer when Emily was fifteen.
Emily had been largely alone ever since.
My anger returned.
Not toward Victoria.
Toward our father.
“He left you.”
Emily looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mom never believed he intentionally stopped paying.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why?”
Emily opened a drawer beside her bed.
Inside was a bundle of letters.
All addressed to her.
From our father.
One every birthday.
Until he died.
I opened the last.
To my little star,
I know you think I forgot. I didn’t. I’m fixing something I should have fixed years ago. When the time is right, I’m going to tell Sarah and Daniel everything.
I looked up.
“If he was still writing…”
Victoria finished the thought.
“Then someone else stopped the money.”
Emily nodded.
“And I think I know who.”
She reached beneath her pillow.
Pulled out an old USB drive.
“My mother left me this.”
“What’s on it?”
Emily looked directly at me.
“Proof that someone inside Bennett Medical stole the money Dad created for me.”
Daniel went still.
“How much?”
May you like
Emily answered:
“About twelve million dollars.”
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