Chapter 6 - THE DOCTOR WHO SIGNED EVERYTHING
Ethan took the court order from the attorney.
The signature at the bottom belonged to Judge Malcolm Price.
Price sat on the Hartwell Foundation board.
He had attended the penthouse dinner.
He had witnessed Olivia arguing with Victoria before the terrace incident.
Now he had granted Victoria emergency control without speaking to Ethan.
Agent Mercer read the document.
“This order has no federal authority.”
“This hospital is private property,” Victoria replied.
“Your badge does not cancel family law.”
Detective Quinn stepped closer.
“Attempted murder does.”
Victoria smiled.
“You have no arrest warrant.”
“Not yet.”
“Then move.”
She walked toward the operating doors.
Rosa blocked her.
Victoria looked at the housekeeper as though seeing dirt on an expensive carpet.
“You have already exceeded your position.”
Rosa did not move.
“My position is between you and that child.”
Victoria raised one hand.
A security officer stepped forward.
Ethan moved beside Rosa.
Then another voice came from the elevator.
“Nobody enters that operating room.”
Dr. Samuel Keene approached with two hospital officials.
He had served as the Hartwell family physician for three decades.
He signed Charles’s mental incapacity declaration.
He had also signed Victoria’s emergency guardianship petition.
Victoria turned toward him.
“Samuel, explain to these people that Olivia is medically unstable.”
Keene looked at her.
“She is unstable because someone tried to kill her.”
The hallway became silent.
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.
“What did you say?”
Keene removed a small recorder from his pocket.
“For twenty years, I signed whatever you placed in front of me.”
“I altered Charles’s records.”
“I concealed the bruises on Robert.”
“I certified Ethan as emotionally dependent when he was nineteen.”
Ethan stared at him.
“Why?”
Victoria answered.
“To protect you.”
Keene shook his head.
“To control him.”
Victoria’s face became cold.
“You were paid generously.”
“I was threatened generously too.”
Keene looked toward Agent Mercer.
“I requested federal protection two hours ago.”
Mercer nodded.
Keene had contacted investigators after Rosa’s recording became public.
He knew Victoria would begin destroying witnesses.
He carried copies of Charles’s medical files.
The records showed no signs of dementia.
Instead, they documented repeated exposure to a blood-thinning drug not prescribed by Keene.
The drug would have made even a small injury dangerous.
Charles had been taking it for six months before his death.
“Did you give it to him?” Ethan asked.
“No.”
“I discovered it during blood tests.”
“Your mother ordered me to remove the results.”
Victoria laughed softly.
“You expect people to believe a frightened doctor after twenty years of fraud?”
“No,” Keene said.
“I expect them to believe the laboratory copies Charles sent to his attorney.”
Victoria’s attorney stepped closer.
“What attorney?”
Keene looked toward Ethan.
“Margaret Sloan.”
Ethan knew the name.
She had been Charles’s private counsel.
Officially, Margaret died in a house fire three weeks after Charles’s yacht accident.
Keene shook his head.
“She survived.”
“She entered witness protection.”
“She has the original trust.”
Victoria’s composure cracked.
Only slightly.
But Ethan saw it.
The operating-room doors opened.
A nurse rushed out.
“We need blood.”
“What type?” Ethan asked.
“O negative.”
Rosa raised her hand.
“That is mine.”
The nurse took her toward the donation room.
Victoria watched her leave.
The contempt on her face deepened.
“A servant’s blood,” she whispered.
Ethan turned toward her.
“That servant has done more for my family tonight than you have in my entire life.”
A baby’s weak cry came from behind the operating doors.
Everyone stopped.
The sound was small.
Fragile.
Alive.
Ethan covered his mouth.
The doctor emerged.
“You have a daughter.”
“She weighs four pounds, six ounces.”
“She needs respiratory support.”
“And Olivia?”
The doctor’s expression became serious.
“She is bleeding.”
“We are trying to control it.”
Victoria looked toward the operating room.
The grandchild trust had just become irrevocable.
Thirty-one percent of Hartwell Global no longer belonged to her control.
Her eyes moved toward the emergency staircase.
Agent Mercer noticed.
“Do not move.”
May you like
Victoria smiled.
Then every light on the maternity floor went out.
