Chapter 8 - The Doctor Who Lied
Vanessa returned three hours later with an attorney.
She claimed she had driven away because Grant’s accusations had frightened her.
Her lawyer spoke calmly.
Vanessa cried beautifully.
She denied pushing Noah.
Denied abusing him.
Denied giving him unprescribed medication.
Then she produced something Grant had not expected.
Medical records.
Dozens of them.
They described Noah as emotionally unstable.
Prone to fabrication.
Confused after trauma.
Possibly experiencing memory distortion.
All were signed by the same child psychiatrist.
Dr. Malcolm Pierce.
Grant stared at the pages.
“He never told me this.”
Vanessa wiped tears from her cheeks.
“He was trying to protect you.”
Claire almost laughed at the absurdity.
Grant did not.
He looked sick.
The police could not arrest Vanessa based solely on Noah’s accusation and Claire’s video.
Especially when Vanessa insisted the medication had been a doctor-approved sleep supplement.
The blue bottle remained missing.
But Grant refused to let Vanessa near Noah.
She moved into a hotel.
The next morning, Grant and Claire met Dr. Pierce at his Boston office.
He was polished, gray-haired, and nervous.
Grant placed the medical records on his desk.
“Did you write these?”
Dr. Pierce adjusted his glasses.
“Yes.”
“Did you diagnose my son as delusional?”
“I documented concerns.”
Grant leaned forward.
“I spoke to Noah’s neurologist.”
Dr. Pierce’s face changed.
“He says there is no clinical basis for these statements.”
“Psychiatry is not neurology.”
Claire noticed Dr. Pierce’s right hand.
A faint tremor.
She placed a photograph of the blue bottle on the desk.
“What is DZM?”
Dr. Pierce stared at it too long.
“I don’t know.”
Claire knew he was lying.
Grant knew it too.
Grant stood.
“If my son was sedated without medical necessity, I will spend every dollar I have making sure the person responsible never touches another child.”
Dr. Pierce swallowed.
Then his office phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Vanessa Whitman.
He declined the call.
Grant saw the name.
So did Claire.
Dr. Pierce lowered his head.
“I never prescribed the blue liquid.”
Grant went still.
“Then what did you prescribe?”
“Nothing at night.”
Claire’s pulse quickened.
“Why did you falsify the reports?”
Dr. Pierce said nothing.
Grant slammed his palm on the desk.
“Why?”
Dr. Pierce finally whispered.
“Because Vanessa had something on me.”
“What?”
“Financial records.”
He looked toward the door.
Then back at them.
“She paid me to describe Noah as unreliable.”
Grant’s face hardened.
“For how long?”
“Ten months.”
Claire felt sick.
Dr. Pierce removed a folder from a locked drawer.
“There is something else.”
Inside was a handwritten note from Noah’s former physical therapist.
May you like
It contained one sentence.
NOAH TOLD ME HIS STEPMOTHER HURT HIS MOTHER’S CAR.
