Chapter 3 - The Letter Sarah Hid
Nathan ended the call without remembering to say goodbye.
For several seconds, he stood in the hospital corridor with the phone still pressed to his ear.
Rosa rose slowly.
"Nathan?"
He lowered the phone.
"Someone filed a court petition in my name six years ago."
Rosa's face changed.
"For Sarah?"
"To have her declared incapacitated."
"Did you sign it?"
Nathan looked at her so sharply she regretted the question before he answered.
"No."
He opened his contacts and searched for Victor Hale.
His thumb hovered over the call button.
Then he stopped.
Sarah's letter was still against his chest.
Do not trust Victor Hale.
Nathan locked the phone instead.
"I need a computer."
Rosa pointed toward the physicians' workroom.
Nathan walked there without waiting.
His hospital credentials gave him access to legal databases used for medical guardianship cases.
He searched Sarah Carter's full name.
Nothing appeared.
He searched Marcus Kane.
Several civil cases appeared, including debt collections, a dismissed assault complaint, and two protective-order requests that had been withdrawn.
Then he searched his own name with Sarah's.
One sealed case surfaced.
Pierce v. Carter, 2019.
Nathan stared at the title.
The petitioner was listed as Nathaniel James Pierce.
His full legal name.
The respondent was Sarah Elizabeth Carter.
The matter was sealed by judicial order.
The final disposition line contained only three words.
Petition voluntarily withdrawn.
Nathan clicked the docket history.
The petition had been filed on April 11, 2019.
It had been withdrawn on April 18.
Seven days.
Long enough to obtain temporary authority over records.
Long enough to seize a shelter file.
Long enough to tell Sarah that her brother had gone to court to take control of her life.
Nathan felt rage rise so fast he had to grip the desk.
He remembered where he had been that week.
He had been in Boston performing a high-risk valve reconstruction while Victor handled what he called routine foundation matters.
Nathan pulled out Sarah's letter again.
There were faint marks near the bottom he had not noticed at home.
The plastic wrap had protected the main page, but a second smaller sheet was folded inside it.
He separated the damp layers carefully.
The second sheet contained dates.
March 8, 2019 - called Nathan's office, transferred to Victor.
March 14 - letter returned unopened.
April 2 - Rosa answered gate phone, then line cut.
Nathan looked up.
Rosa stood several feet away.
Her face had gone white.
"Rosa."
She did not move.
Nathan read the line again.
"April second, 2019."
Rosa's eyes filled instantly.
"I remember."
Nathan stood.
"What happened?"
Rosa pressed the mitten against her chest.
"A woman called from the lower gate."
"Sarah?"
"I didn't know at first."
Her voice shook.
"She said she was your sister and that she needed to see you."
Nathan's throat tightened.
"Where was I?"
"Home."
The answer hit harder than anything else that night.
Nathan stared at her.
"I was here?"
"You had just come back from Portland."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Rosa began crying.
"I tried."
Nathan said nothing.
"Mr. Hale was in your study," Rosa continued.
"He heard me answer the gate phone and came into the kitchen."
Nathan could see Victor walking through his house as clearly as if it were happening again.
Victor had always behaved as if the Pierce home were partly his.
"What did he say?"
"He told me Sarah had been drinking and that she had threatened you."
Rosa wiped her cheek.
"He said you had instructed everyone not to let her onto the property."
Nathan's voice became dangerously calm.
"And you believed him."
"Yes."
Rosa looked ashamed.
"He was your attorney."
Nathan turned away because he could not bear to see her guilt while carrying his own.
"Did you speak to Sarah again?"
"For a few seconds."
"What did she say?"
Rosa shut her eyes.
"She said, 'Please tell Nathan I am not asking for money.'"
Nathan stared at the floor.
Rosa's voice cracked.
"Then she said, 'Tell him I just need my brother.'"
Nathan's hand closed into a fist.
"What did you do?"
"I told her Mr. Hale said you would not see her."
Silence filled the workroom.
"She did not argue."
Rosa's tears fell harder.
"She just said, 'I understand.'"
Nathan turned back toward the page because it was the only thing in the room he could look at without breaking.
The next date on Sarah's list was April 4.
Hawthorne House intake.
April 11.
Nathan court petition.
April 18.
File taken.
April 19.
Marcus found me.
Nathan read the last line twice.
Then he noticed writing on the back.
If Victor shows you a custody order, check the judge's signature against case 18-441.
They used the same judge before.
Nathan took a picture of both pages and encrypted the images into a private medical vault he controlled personally.
Then he copied them to a second cloud account no one at the foundation knew existed.
He had just finished when his phone rang.
Victor Hale.
Nathan let it ring three times before answering.
"Nathan."
Victor sounded warm, concerned, almost paternal.
"I just heard something awful from the sheriff's office."
Nathan's face hardened.
"That was fast."
"A child matching Sarah's daughter was found at your home."
Victor exhaled heavily.
"Are the babies alive?"
Nathan had not told anyone outside the hospital there were babies.
His eyes sharpened.
"Who told you there were babies?"
A pause.
Tiny, but there.
"The sheriff's office, I assume."
"Which person?"
"Nathan, this is hardly the time."
"Which person told you?"
Victor's tone changed by half a degree.
"Deputy Ellis called my office because Marcus is trying to locate his children."
Nathan remembered the deputy at his house stepping backward when Lily mentioned Marcus's friends.
"Marcus is looking for them?"
"Of course he is."
Victor sounded offended by the question.
"They're his children."
Nathan looked through the glass toward Lily's trauma room.
"Where is Sarah?"
Another pause.
"Marcus says she attacked him and disappeared."
Nathan almost laughed.
"Interesting."
"Nathan, I know you and Sarah have history, but you need to be careful."
"Careful of what?"
"Of letting guilt override facts."
Nathan lowered his voice.
"What facts?"
Victor sighed.
"Sarah has struggled for years."
"With what?"
"Paranoia, instability, impulsive behavior."
Nathan thought of a five-year-old walking barefoot through a blizzard because her mother had planned an escape route carefully enough to get three children to safety.
"You have medical records?"
"I have seen enough to know Marcus is the more stable parent."
Nathan's jaw tightened.
"Then why did Marcus have a broken bottle in his hand while Sarah was bleeding on the kitchen floor?"
The line went silent.
Nathan had never told Victor that detail.
He had not told police either.
Only Lily had seen it.
Only Sarah and Marcus should have known.
Victor recovered quickly.
"Who told you that?"
Nathan did not answer.
Victor's voice hardened.
"Nathan, do not question Lily while she is medicated."
"I didn't say Lily told me."
Silence again.
This time it lasted longer.
Nathan looked at Rosa.
She understood from his expression that something had just changed.
"Where are you?" Nathan asked.
"At home."
"Stay there."
Victor gave a short laugh.
"Is that a threat?"
"No."
Nathan ended the call.
"It is advice."
He turned toward the hallway.
A nurse was running toward him.
"Dr. Pierce."
Nathan's heart dropped.
"What happened?"
The nurse pointed toward the elevators.
"There is a man downstairs claiming to be the children's father."
Nathan stepped into the hall.
"Marcus?"
May you like
The nurse nodded.
"And he has a court order giving him immediate custody."
