The Night Katherine Asked for Help
Chapter 09 - The Night Katherine Asked for Help
Katherine’s illness had been treatable.
Her journal described severe reactions to medication, confusion, and fear that Franklin was changing her prescriptions.
She wrote that she planned to leave him and take Emily.
On the final night, Katherine collapsed in the upstairs bedroom.
She asked Franklin to call an ambulance.
He waited forty minutes.
By the time help arrived, she could not be saved.
Franklin insisted he had panicked.
Emily read the journal under the library’s temporary lights.
Her mother’s final entry ended with one sentence.
If anything happens to me, keep Emily away from him.
Emily looked at her father.
“You let her die.”
“I was afraid she would take everything.”
“She was a person.”
“She was leaving me.”
Franklin said it as though abandonment justified death.
Police moved in.
He did not resist.
Before they handcuffed him, he asked Emily whether she would visit.
She said nothing.
The murder charge was difficult because years had passed and medical evidence was limited.
Prosecutors charged Franklin with negligent homicide, arson conspiracy, fraud, forgery, and obstruction.
The town turned against him overnight.
People who once praised his generosity claimed they had always distrusted him.
Emily found the sudden moral courage disgusting.
The same neighbors had watched Franklin isolate her.
The same officials accepted his donations.
The same relatives repeated his lies.
Franklin had caused the harm, but silence had protected it.
Emily announced that the investigation would include every person who helped transfer stolen properties.
Several prominent names appeared in the files.
The mayor resigned.
The county prosecutor was suspended.
Grant agreed to testify.
Then Maya found a document that threatened Emily’s ownership.
Rose’s trust had never been properly witnessed.
If challenged successfully, Hawthorne House could return to Franklin’s estate.
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And Franklin had already signed a new will.
It left everything to Grant.
