Chapter 8 - THE WATCH THEY TRIED TO STEAL
Chloe was found at a private clinic owned by a Vance subsidiary.
She said she entered voluntarily for exhaustion.
The clinic had taken her phone, restricted visitors, and prepared paperwork declaring her temporarily incapable of managing medical decisions.
She had signed nothing.
Federal agents removed her under a court order.
The clinic director claimed Beatrice arranged the admission out of concern.
Chloe called it imprisonment.
Her fear made her cooperative.
Her earlier lies made every statement require corroboration.
Paige Keller appeared on highway footage driving Chloe to the clinic.
She had not fled.
She was still working for the family.
My shattered watch remained in federal evidence because its recording captured the kick and pre-raid conversation.
Someone submitted a falsified court order demanding its return to Julian as marital property.
The clerk noticed the judge’s signature did not match.
The filing originated from a computer at Arthur’s law firm.
No lawyer admitted creating it.
The watch contained more than audio.
Its emergency transmitter recorded movement through nearby Bluetooth devices. At 1:51, it detected the black case’s embedded tracker moving from the gift table toward the kitchen.
At 1:55, the tracker entered the service elevator.
At 2:03, it left the hotel through the underground loading dock.
A delivery van departed at the same moment.
The van belonged to a medical-waste contractor used by Vance Biologics.
Agents found it abandoned.
The driver was missing.
The tracking device had been removed and crushed.
Inside the van lay blood-stained gauze that did not belong to me or Chloe.
DNA identified Paige Keller.
The quantity suggested injury, not death.
The Vances claimed Paige had stolen the case and escaped.
Daniel believed someone wanted investigators chasing her instead of the documents.
Then the driver contacted police.
He had been threatened into surrendering the van.
He remembered a second vehicle following him.
A black sedan registered to Julian.
Julian denied driving it.
Traffic footage showed Arthur in the passenger seat.
The driver remained hidden behind reflected glass.
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My husband might have attacked me in public.
His father had been moving the evidence in private.
