The Woman Before Elena
Chapter 05 - The Woman Before Elena
Naomi’s forensic team traced the false account to a corporate service in Delaware.
The registered agent was a woman named Marissa Cole.
Public records listed Marissa as Damien’s executive assistant from nine years earlier. Her employment ended abruptly after a private retreat in Lake Geneva. Six months later, she was declared dead in a boating accident.
No body had been recovered.
Elena had never heard her name.
Margaret contacted the detective who handled the old case. He remembered pressure from Cross attorneys and an insurance settlement paid to Marissa’s mother. The accident file contained photographs of a damaged boat, an empty bottle, and a bloodstain too small to establish death.
The boat belonged to Damien.
Celeste had identified Marissa’s coat.
Naomi found something stranger: three months before the accident, Marissa and Damien applied for a confidential marriage license in Nevada.
No divorce appeared in any state database.
“If she survived,” Elena said, “my marriage may not be legal.”
“And Damien may have committed bigamy,” Naomi replied.
Margaret studied Marissa’s employee photograph. She was dark-haired, serious, and close to Elena’s age. Behind her ear was a small scar visible beneath the hairline.
The same shape appeared in a recent surveillance image from Crosswell Behavioral Institute.
A patient listed as Mary Collins had lived in a restricted wing for eight years. No family visits were recorded. Her bills were paid by a foundation controlled by Celeste.
Margaret obtained an emergency welfare order using evidence tied to the fraudulent psychiatric petition.
At Crosswell, administrators delayed them for two hours. Dr. Baines insisted Mary Collins was nonverbal, delusional, and dangerous.
When the patient entered the interview room, she moved slowly and avoided eye contact. Medication had dulled her movements, but she recognized Damien’s photograph immediately.
She knocked it from the table.
Margaret placed a photograph of Elena beside it.
Marissa stared at the bruises on Elena’s neck.
Then she whispered her first clear words in years.
“He did it again.”
Dr. Baines tried to end the interview.
Naomi blocked the door.
Marissa reached beneath her sleeve and removed a thin gold band threaded onto a string.
Inside the ring were engraved initials: D.C. and M.C.
The date preceded Elena’s wedding by four years.
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Damien’s first wife was alive.
And his family had hidden her inside the same institution prepared to imprison Elena.
