Chapter 11 - WHERE DID LAUREL GO?The rehabilitation center discharged Laurel after eleven weeks.
A driver remembered taking her to a small coastal town in Maine.
Camden.
Harrison had rented an apartment through Redwood Holdings.
Payments continued for fourteen months.
Then stopped.
Why?
Harrison’s ledger said only:
L.M. independent arrangement.
Grant went to Camden with investigators.
Not alone.
Not to chase a fantasy.
They found the old landlord.
Yes.
A woman lived there.
Used the name Laura Mercer.
Quiet.
Walked with a cane initially.
Painted constantly.
Rarely had visitors.
Then one day she left.
No forwarding address.
The landlord had one photograph from a tenant holiday gathering.
Grant saw it.
His knees nearly failed.
Laurel.
Older by maybe a year.
Shorter hair.
A scar near her temple.
But Laurel.
Alive.
At least fourteen months after Grant buried an empty coffin.
Rachel cried.
Grant could not.
He simply stared.
His wife had survived.
And while he grieved, somebody had convinced her to remain away.
Then came the hardest question.
May you like
Why didn’t she come home once she became independent?
They found an answer in another letter.
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