Chapter 11
They moved me before dawn.
No public record.
No hospital announcement.
No flowers.
No visitors without clearance.
I watched the city fade from an ambulance window and felt like I had become evidence being transported.
Maybe I had.
The new facility belonged to my father’s network.
Small.
Private.
Secure.
Dr. Chen met us there.
“We begin reconstruction planning when you’re ready,” she said.
I touched the bandage.
“What if I’m never ready?”
“Then we begin when you are never ready but tired of waiting.”
I liked her.
Christian was arrested that afternoon.
Conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.
Witness intimidation.
Medical fraud.
Attempted coercion.
Sabrina was arrested the next day.
Margaret remained untouched.
For now.
The police found Lawson in a cabin in Kentucky.
He had burner phones, cash, and records.
More than mine.
Women.
Patients.
Artists.
Actresses.
Girlfriends of powerful men.
Fertility altered without informed consent.
Medications changed.
Psychiatric labels used to discredit them.
Lawson had been doing this for years.
Margaret’s name appeared again and again.
Consulting fees.
Crisis management retainers.
Private family preservation services.
I wanted to vomit.
Eleanor sat beside me.
“Your case may open many others.”
I stared at the ceiling.
“I didn’t ask to be a symbol.”
“No one honest ever does.”
Gabriel visited under supervision.
He looked wrecked.
“I found something,” he said.
Eleanor stiffened.
“What?”
He handed over an old tour drive.
“Christian kept backups of everything. He said secrets were insurance.”
I plugged it in.
Folders appeared.
Genevieve.
Sabrina.
Lawson.
Margaret.
Then one labeled:
The Accident.
May you like
My father had died in an accident.
My hand froze.
