Chương 9
Sloane and Hannah remained beneath a speaker playing cheerful acoustic music.
A man at the next table stood to leave. As he passed, he paused beside Sloane.
“My daughter’s wedding got canceled once,” he said. “Best thing that ever happened to her.”
Sloane stared at him.
He seemed to realize his encouragement had failed.
“Different situation,” he added, then hurried away.
Hannah looked down at her coffee.
A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.
Sloane glared at her, then began laughing too. It lasted only a few seconds and ended with both of them looking ashamed.
“He meant well,” Hannah said.
“I hope his daughter hates him.”
“That seems excessive.”
“I’m having a difficult week.”
They sat in silence.
Finally Sloane said, “Do you know a lawyer?”
“Yes.”
“Of course you do.”
“Her name is Rachel Kim. We were roommates in Chicago.”
“Does she know about us?”
“She knows I have a family.”
“That sounds generous.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
Sloane traced a wet ring left by her cup.
“Will you call her?”
“Yes.”
Rachel Kim listened to the voicemail twice without interrupting.
Her office occupied the fourth floor of a renovated brick building near downtown Columbus. The waiting room contained no leather, no marble, and no evidence that anyone there handled glamorous problems. A printer jammed during their first ten minutes, and Rachel excused herself to help an assistant remove a strip of torn paper.
Hannah had trusted her since they were twenty, when Rachel had responded to Hannah’s first night terror by offering water and never asking what the dream contained.
Now Rachel sat across from Hannah and Sloane with a legal pad on her knee.
“I am not representing both of you,” she said.
Sloane looked confused. “Why not?”
“Because your interests may conflict. I can explain general process today. After that, each of you needs separate counsel.”
“I can’t afford—”
“You spent more on floral installation than most people spend on a car,” Hannah said.
Sloane turned toward her. “My parents paid for the flowers.”
“Then sell one.”
Rachel raised a hand.
“This is exactly why I will not represent both of you.”
Hannah sat back.
Rachel continued. “The original accident involved a fatality. There may be criminal, civil, insurance, and licensing implications. I am not going to guess which ones remain active without reviewing the record. Do not contact the investigating officer. Do not make public statements. Do not threaten your father with the recording.”
“He already knows Hannah has it,” Sloane said.
“Then do not remind him.”
Rachel looked at Hannah.
“Has anyone else heard the file?”
“Nathan, Evelyn, Sloane.”
“Did anyone copy it?”
“No.”
“Where is the forensic copy?”
“In a secure digital archive and with the attorney who sent my father a warning during residency.”
“That attorney still practicing?”
“I think so.”
Rachel wrote down the name.
“Was there a settlement after the accident?”
“Insurance paid for the guardrail and vehicle,” Hannah said. “There was no other injured party.”
“Was Owen’s estate opened?”
“Our parents handled it.”
“Any wrongful-death claim?”
“Not that I know.”
Sloane looked nauseated.
Rachel’s voice softened slightly. “Telling the truth after ten years can be morally necessary and legally complicated. Those are not opposite statements.”
“What happens to Hannah’s medical license?” Sloane asked.
Hannah looked at her.
Rachel said, “I don’t know. The false statement occurred before medical school, and we do not know what she disclosed on later applications. Hannah?”
“I disclosed the crash, the blood test, and that no charges were filed. I did not disclose that my statement about distraction was false.”
“Were you asked whether you had ever made a false police statement?”
“No.”
“Good. That does not mean there is no issue. It means we investigate before panicking.”
Sloane twisted her ring.
“What happens to me?”
“The same answer.”
“I was a minor.”
“You are now an adult considering a corrective statement. Your age then matters. It does not make the process imaginary.”
Sloane’s eyes moved toward Hannah.
“Did you know all this when you said we should tell the truth?”
“I knew some of it.”
“You could lose your career.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you willing?”
Hannah looked at Rachel’s jammed printer, still flashing an orange error light.
“Because I have spent ten years letting fear make the same decision.”
Rachel watched her.
“That is emotionally clear,” she said. “It is not yet a legal strategy.”
Hannah almost smiled.
Rachel assigned them separate attorneys within her firm and told them to retrieve every document they still possessed. Hannah had kept the police report, hospital records, Alan’s voicemail, letters from insurance, and copies of the threat sent to her residency reference.
Sloane had nothing.
“Dad kept the file,” she said.
“Do not take documents from his office without advice,” Rachel warned.
“They’re family records.”
“That phrase has sent many people into avoidable trouble.”
Denise called while they were leaving.
Sloane answered.
Her mother spoke so loudly that Hannah could hear her without the speaker.
“Your father is meeting with a public-relations consultant.”
Sloane stopped in the hallway. “For what?”
“He says the video is affecting bookings.”
“It has been two days.”
“Three clients asked questions. One postponed a contract.”
“What is he planning to say?”
“I don’t know. He locked me out of the office.”
Hannah leaned against the wall.
Denise continued. “He wants you to come home. He says Nathan is manipulating you.”
“Nathan barely speaks to me.”
“He says Hannah is using his trauma.”
Hannah closed her eyes.
Sloane’s face hardened. “Where are you?”
“At the house.”
“Leave.”
“What?”
“Go to Aunt Carol’s.”
“I can’t simply leave.”
“Take a bag.”
“Sloane—”
“He is going to make you repeat his story again.”
Denise’s breathing became audible.
“He says we agreed.”
“You agreed because he wouldn’t let anyone think.”
“That is not fair.”
“Neither was changing the locks.”
Silence followed.
Sloane looked at Hannah.
Their mother whispered, “I found the key.”
Hannah straightened.
May you like
“What key?” Sloane asked.
“To the cabinet in his office. The old one. He moved the accident file after Hannah’s attorney wrote.”
