Chapter 5 - DR. FOSTER
By nine in the morning, Julian and Serena were out of surgery and out of my reach.
That did not matter. Evidence did.
Nora filed an emergency objection to the conservatorship petition and served notice that Adrian was represented independently and contesting any claim of incapacity. She also moved to block any board action involving Harbor until all proxy instruments were reviewed.
It was clean. Fast. Legal.
I spent the rest of the morning doing something uglier.
I went back to the hospital.
Dr. Foster looked at me over the rim of her reading glasses when I appeared outside the post-op consult room.
“You again.”
“I need five minutes.”
“Are you asking as family?”
“As a wife.”
“Which one?”
I would have smiled under different circumstances.
“Julian’s.”
“And Ms. Rollins is your brother’s wife.”
“Yes.”
Dr. Foster folded her arms. “This is why I chose medicine instead of finance.”
“I just need to know one thing. Did either of them come in with anything unusual besides obvious panic and catastrophic embarrassment?”
Her expression stayed unreadable.
“I can’t discuss the substance of their treatment.”
“Did you recover the tube?”
That made her eyes flicker.
Good.
“I’m not asking what was done with it. I’m asking if it existed.”
Silence.
Then: “Why?”
“Because Julian accused me of switching it.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
She studied my face.
Apparently whatever she saw there satisfied her, because she lowered her voice.
“A personal item was bagged with Ms. Rollins’s belongings. I cannot tell you more than that.”
“Was it labeled?”
“No.”
“Hospital supply?”
“No.”
That was enough.
The glue hadn’t come from me. It hadn’t come from the hospital. It had come from Serena.
Or from something she brought with her.
I thanked Dr. Foster and turned to leave.
“Elena.”
I faced her again.
She hesitated, then said, “When you asked for the safe combination last night, your husband looked more frightened than when I told him he might need surgery.”
I said nothing.
She continued, “People in pain don’t always reveal the truth. But they do reveal priorities.”
Outside the hospital, I sat in my car and called Nora.
“The glue came from Serena’s belongings.”
“That helps only if he tries to blame you publicly.”
“He will.”
“Probably.”
I looked through the windshield at a bright, beautiful morning that felt like a personal insult.
“Can we get access to Adrian’s full medication records?”
“I’m already filing.”
“Faster.”
“Elena, the law moves at the speed of paper.”
“Then buy better paper.”
She snorted. “You sound like your father.”
Before she hung up, she added, “Adrian’s neurologist returned my call. He says he discontinued the sedative six months ago after concerns about dependency and impaired cognition.”
I shut my eyes.
“That means—”
“It means someone had to keep the prescription stream alive after the medical basis ended.”
I drove from the hospital straight to Harbor.
Not the administrative tower.
The clinical wing.
If Julian had been there the night of Adrian’s accident, I wanted to know why.
Harbor’s parking records office was on the lower level near billing and facilities. I used executive credentials to get access to historical logs. The sublevel B receipt matched a vehicle registered to Vance Strategic.
Assigned driver: executive pool.
Reserved for: J. Vance.
I stood frozen in front of the screen.
Julian had lied about Boston.
He had been at Harbor.
The night before my brother nearly drowned.
Then a facilities clerk stepped in behind me.
“Ms. Vance? There’s someone asking for you upstairs.”
“Who?”
“Mrs. Rollins Vance.”
My blood went cold.
May you like
“Serena is here?”
The clerk nodded nervously. “She says it’s urgent. She says if you don’t come now, Julian will destroy the storage locker before you ever find out what was inside it.”
