Chương 2
Margaret’s eyes moved beneath her lids. Thomas appeared beside Clara, one hand braced against the doorframe.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Her rhythm is sinus,” Priya said. “She may have heard the shouting.”
The hospitalist entered, followed by a resident. Clara stepped back. She knew too much about what the numbers meant and not enough about what would happen next. That was the cruelty of being a doctor in a family emergency. Every possibility came with a name.
Behind her, Julian was collecting the scattered pages. Gwen stood near the wall with the baby, her mouth moving silently as if counting breaths. Dennis spoke into his radio, asking someone downstairs to stop a woman in a burgundy dress, then glanced at Clara.
“Dr. Hale, I need to know whether there was an assault.”
“No,” Clara said.
Julian straightened. “I threw the folder.”
“I saw that.”
“No one touched anyone.”
Dennis looked at the roses, the papers, and the laboratory report. “I’m going to need names.”
Thomas turned on him with sudden anger. “My wife is having a medical emergency.”
“And I’m trying to keep another one from happening.”
The hospitalist ordered medication. Priya pushed it through Margaret’s IV while the resident dimmed the overhead lights. Clara watched her mother’s heart rate begin to fall. One hundred eighteen. One hundred twelve. One hundred six.
Thomas lowered himself into the chair outside the room. He looked older than he had that morning. The collar of his pale blue shirt was bent, and one shoelace had come undone. He stared at the floor where a single rose petal had been carried by someone’s shoe.
“You knew,” he said to Clara.
It was not a question.
“I suspected.”
“You had a test.”
“Julian had a test.”
Thomas looked at Julian, who was holding the broken folder against his chest. “How long?”
“Three days.”
“And you waited until now?”
“We were waiting for Gwen to sign a statement.”
Gwen flinched when her name was spoken.
Thomas stood. “You brought a newborn into an emergency department to stage an ambush?”
“Victoria brought us here,” Gwen said.
Her voice was so soft Thomas leaned toward her.
“She said Margaret had asked to see the baby before surgery. She said Clara had agreed.”
Clara looked at her. “There is no surgery scheduled.”
“I know that now.”
The baby stirred beneath the blanket. Gwen shifted him upright with practiced care and patted his back. Her hands were trembling, but the movement was automatic.
Julian placed the folder on a windowsill. “Victoria called me too. She said Thomas was preparing to have Clara removed as Margaret’s medical decision-maker.”
Thomas’s face changed. “I never said that.”
“I didn’t believe her. That’s why I came with the file.”
“And the flowers?” Clara asked.
Julian looked at the ruined bouquet.
“That was a mistake.”
Under any other circumstances, the answer might have been funny. Clara almost laughed, which frightened her more than tears would have. She folded her arms to stop herself from reaching for the wall.
The doors to Margaret’s room remained open while the clinical team worked. Thomas kept looking inside, then back at the three people who had arrived carrying the wreckage of his daughters’ lives.
“I want all of you out,” he said.
“Dad—”
“Not you.” He pointed at Julian, then Gwen. “Them.”
Gwen’s chin lifted a fraction. “I’ll go.”
“You’re going to talk to security first,” Dennis said.
“I have a baby.”
“We’ll find somewhere private.”
“There is nowhere private in a hospital,” Clara said.
Priya heard her and gave the smallest nod.
Dennis led Gwen toward a family consultation room. Julian started after them, but Clara stopped him with one look.
“Stay.”
He did.
Thomas stepped closer to Clara. “Where did you get the drive?”
“Mom had Victoria’s bag when the ambulance arrived.”
“That’s Victoria’s bag.”
“It was on the kitchen floor. Mom was holding the strap.”
“You searched it while she was unconscious?”
“I looked for her medication list.”
“And found a USB.”
“And an unsigned power-of-attorney form naming Victoria.”
Thomas rubbed his face. “We discussed changing the documents.”
“You discussed removing me?”
“We discussed simplifying things.”
“While Mom was confused?”
“She wasn’t confused yesterday.”
Clara felt the familiar pressure building behind her ribs. Her father had a way of replacing facts with tone. If he spoke gently enough, cruelty became concern and secrecy became protection.
“Did she agree?” Clara asked.
Thomas looked past her.
That was the answer.
Julian remained near the windowsill, silent. His silence had once been one of Clara’s favorite things about him. He could sit beside her for an hour without filling it. During the divorce, the same quality had become a locked door.
The hospitalist emerged from Margaret’s room. “Her pressure is responding. We’re going to repeat some labs and keep stimulation low.”
“Can I go in?” Thomas asked.
“For a few minutes. One person.”
Thomas entered without looking at Clara.
The hospitalist waited until the door closed. “You’re family, but you’re also staff. I need you to step away from this corridor.”
Clara nodded.
“There were complaints about shouting.”
“I understand.”
“Go downstairs. Eat something. Let us do our jobs.”
Clara nearly said, She is my mother, as though the physician might have forgotten. Instead she removed the stethoscope from her neck and placed it in her coat pocket.
“I’ll be in the consultation room.”
“Not on this unit.”
The rebuke was deserved, which made it harder to bear.
Clara walked to the stairwell because the elevator still felt occupied by Victoria’s face. Julian followed at a distance. On the landing between the fourth and third floors, she stopped beside a vending machine that had been unplugged for months.
“What did you actually test?” she asked.
“Me and the baby. Buccal swabs, witnessed collection, chain-of-custody forms. Gwen consented.”
“When?”
“Monday.”
“Why did she consent?”
“Because Victoria threatened to report her.”
“For what?”
Julian looked down the concrete stairs.
Clara waited.
“She took money from the foundation.”
May you like
“How much?”
“Thirty-two thousand dollars.”
