Chương 5
“Not that I know.”
“Did you authorize her to prepare this?”
“No.”
His answer came faster than the earlier ones had. Amelia believed it, which did not relieve her.
He reached the spousal consent form. His thumb stopped at the bottom of the page.
“That signature is mine.”
Margaret stepped closer. “You signed the transfer agreement?”
“I signed a draft consent cover sheet last week.”
Amelia looked at him. “Why?”
“It was supposed to authorize legal to begin due diligence.”
“The page says I received independent counsel.”
“That language wasn’t there.”
“Did you read the entire document?”
“It was one page when I signed it.”
Margaret’s tone sharpened. “You electronically signed a detachable page.”
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck. “I was in a car between meetings. Victoria said Meridian needed proof that management had authority to proceed.”
“And you trusted her,” Amelia said.
“Yes.”
The honesty made the hurt cleaner.
Daniel set the paper down.
“Margaret, suspend Victoria’s access.”
“I already requested it.”
“Freeze the Meridian process.”
“The board has to act.”
“Call the vote.”
“At midnight?”
“If someone prepared forged marital documents before an emergency admission, morning is too late.”
Margaret picked up her portfolio. “I’ll convene the executive committee.”
Daniel turned to Leah. “Where is Victoria?”
“In her office with Mr. Cole outside.”
“Make sure she doesn’t leave.”
Margaret stopped at the door. “Security can preserve access and property. They cannot detain her without lawful grounds.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“That,” Margaret said, “is why owners still need boards.”
She and Leah left.
Maya quietly checked Amelia’s IV. Harris remained by the window, looking older than he had an hour earlier.
Daniel pulled the chair closer to the bed.
Amelia said, “Don’t sit yet.”
He remained standing.
“Why did Victoria know we were having problems?”
“I told her after the donor dinner in June.”
“The dinner where you left me alone with twelve trustees because you had an emergency call?”
“It was an emergency.”
“With Victoria.”
“With the bond counsel. Victoria was there.”
“And afterward you discussed our marriage.”
He looked at his hands. “I was angry.”
“At me?”
“At the situation.”
“That means me when you say it.”
His mouth tightened. “You told me you were tired of being the person who made my life look decent.”
“I told you I was tired of your hospital being the third person in our marriage.”
“Might have been the fourth.”
The remark escaped him with the wrong kind of dryness. Daniel closed his eyes briefly.
Amelia stared.
“Sorry,” he said.
“No, let’s count. You, me, the hospital, and Victoria?”
“I didn’t mean that.”
“But you thought it.”
“I meant the foundation.”
“My work does not wake us at two in the morning.”
“No. Your work just makes you disappear for three weeks and call it a retreat.”
“It was a reading program in rural Oregon.”
“You came home and slept in another room.”
“Because you were on the phone until midnight.”
“With Victoria?”
“With the finance team.”
“Which includes Victoria.”
Maya removed an empty saline bag with exaggerated care. Harris inspected the view through the window as if downtown architecture had suddenly become urgent.
Daniel lowered his voice. “Can we do this without an audience?”
“You brought the audience into my marriage before I did.”
He absorbed that.
Amelia looked at the papers again. “What did you tell her?”
“That we were struggling. That you might leave the foundation board. That you wanted space.”
“Did you tell her I was leaving you?”
“I said I didn’t know.”
“Did you want her to think I was?”
“No.”
“Did you correct her if she did?”
He did not answer.
The air-conditioning clicked on.
A strip of adhesive on Amelia’s IV began lifting at one corner. Maya pressed it down and smoothed it with her thumb.
Daniel finally sat.
“I liked talking to someone who understood the hospital,” he said.
There it was. Not an affair, perhaps. Something less simple and therefore harder to dismiss.
“Did she understand you?”
“She understood the decisions.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He stared at the floor. “Sometimes.”
Amelia turned her face toward the window. In the reflection she saw Victoria’s papers, Daniel’s bowed head, Maya’s dark uniform, Harris’s white coat. She saw herself pale against the pillows, her honey-blonde hair tangled over one shoulder, looking like someone whose choices could reasonably be postponed.
“Leave,” she said.
Daniel looked up.
“Amelia—”
“I need to sleep before I decide what to do.”
“We need to talk about the trust.”
“That is one of the things I’m deciding.”
“I’m not asking you to protect the transaction.”
“No. You’re asking me not to make a decision until you explain why everything is more complicated than it appears.”
“It is more complicated.”
“It always is. Complication is where you hide the part you chose.”
He flinched.
She regretted the sentence and did not take it back.
Daniel stood. He bent as though he might kiss her forehead, stopped before touching her, and straightened.
“I’ll be outside.”
“Don’t make the hospital staff serve as guards in our marriage.”
“I’ll be in the boardroom.”
“That’s more appropriate.”
After he left, Harris cleared his throat.
“I should check your incision.”
Amelia looked at him. “Now you remember I’m a patient.”
His cheeks colored.
Maya pulled the privacy curtain around the bed. The ordinary procedure that followed—blood pressure cuff, careful examination, questions about nausea—felt almost merciful. Amelia answered honestly. Harris did not overstate her condition. When she winced, he paused.
“The surgery went well,” he said. “There was more internal bleeding than the initial scan suggested, but we controlled it. Your recovery should be straightforward if there are no complications.”
“Why didn’t you say that before?”
“I told your husband.”
“You told him a softened version.”
“Yes.”
May you like
“Why?”
Harris removed his gloves. “Because he owns the hospital. Because I have spent twenty-six years watching powerful families reward reassurance and punish bad timing. Because I told myself you would receive the full explanation when you were more alert.”
