Chapter 3 - THE WRONG MEDICINE
Ethan handed the phone to Ortiz without speaking.
She read the document twice.
Then she took a screenshot and forwarded it to herself.
"Do not reply."
"It came from my account."
"Exactly."
"Can you trace it?"
"We can try."
"Try faster."
Ortiz looked at him.
Ethan rubbed both hands over his face.
"Sorry."
"You don't need to be polite."
She returned the phone.
"You do need to stay useful."
Ethan nodded.
The hospital door opened again.
Dr. Patel entered with a tablet in his hand.
"I have preliminary results."
Ethan stood.
"Tell me."
"The substance in Emmie's line does not match anything in the medication list supplied by Dr. Mercer's office."
Ortiz's gaze sharpened.
"Do you know what it is?"
"We know enough to say it should not have been administered in an unlabeled home pump under these circumstances."
Ethan stared at the doctor.
"Was it dangerous?"
"Yes."
The word came without hesitation.
Emmie watched their faces from the bed.
Ethan forced his voice lower.
"Is she going to be okay?"
"Her vital signs are improving."
"Long-term?"
"We cannot promise that yet, but I am cautiously optimistic."
Ethan looked at Emmie.
She was awake now.
Her eyes were heavy, but they were tracking the room.
"Can she hear this?"
Dr. Patel nodded.
"Emmie deserves simple, truthful answers."
Ethan sat beside her.
"The medicine Vivian gave you wasn't supposed to be in that pump."
Emmie stared at the blanket.
"I told her it made me feel weird."
"I believe you."
"Dr. Mercer said weird was normal."
Ortiz stepped closer.
"Did Dr. Mercer ever connect the pump himself?"
Emmie shook her head.
"He showed Vivian."
"Where?"
"At home."
Ethan turned.
"Mercer came to the house?"
Emmie nodded.
"Three times."
"When?"
"When you were gone."
Ethan felt the room tilt.
Mercer had told him all appointments occurred at the clinic.
Vivian had backed that up.
"What did they do?"
Emmie's lower lip trembled.
"Can I not talk about it?"
Maya Brooks stepped forward.
"You can stop whenever you want."
Emmie looked relieved.
"I don't want to say it wrong."
Ethan leaned closer.
"There is no wrong way to tell the truth."
Emmie looked at him for a long time.
"They made videos."
Nobody spoke.
"What kind of videos?"
"Me crying."
Ethan's jaw tightened.
"Why were you crying?"
"Because they kept asking the same questions."
"What questions?"
"If I hated you."
Ethan's throat closed.
"What did you say?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"Vivian said we had to start over."
Ortiz's pen stopped moving.
"Start the video over?"
Emmie nodded.
"She said I wasn't doing it right."
The room became silent except for the monitor.
Maya crouched so she was closer to Emmie's eye level.
"Did anyone ever tell you what they wanted you to say?"
Emmie swallowed.
"That Daddy scares me."
Ethan looked away.
A sound escaped him before he could stop it.
It was not quite a sob.
It was something rougher.
Emmie reached for him.
"I didn't mean it."
He caught her hand immediately.
"You don't have to protect me."
"But I didn't mean it."
"I know."
"Vivian said if I said it good, you could come home more."
Ethan bent over her hand.
He pressed his forehead against her knuckles.
For several seconds, nobody asked another question.
Ortiz finally stepped into the hall.
Her phone was already at her ear.
Ethan could hear pieces of the conversation.
"Add coercive recording."
"Yes."
"And get me everything from Mercer's clinic."
She paused.
"No, don't call him first."
Ethan looked at Maya.
"Can Vivian take Emmie from this hospital with that document?"
"Not tonight."
"What about tomorrow?"
"I am requesting an emergency protective hold that keeps Emmie with you pending a hearing."
"Pending a hearing."
"I know you don't want to hear legal language right now."
"I want to know whether she can walk in with a piece of paper and take my daughter."
Maya answered directly.
"Not if I can prevent it."
"That's not the same as no."
"No."
She held his gaze.
"She is not taking Emmie tonight."
That was enough for the next breath.
Not more.
Ortiz returned.
"We found the camera in Emmie's bedroom."
Ethan stood.
"Only one?"
"So far."
"She said there were three."
"We're still searching."
"Did you find the blue bag?"
"The shed is locked with a separate combination lock."
"Break it."
"We have authority to search it."
Ortiz almost smiled.
"My partner will enjoy that part."
Ethan's phone rang.
The screen showed DR. MERCER.
Everyone looked at it.
Ortiz held out one hand.
"Speaker."
Ethan answered.
"Hello."
Mercer's voice came through warm and calm.
"Ethan, I just heard Emmie was taken to St. Catherine's."
"Who told you?"
A brief pause.
"Vivian."
Ortiz raised one finger, signaling Ethan to keep him talking.
"What did Vivian tell you?"
"That there was a misunderstanding at home."
"She chained Emmie to the porch."
Another pause.
"I wasn't there, so I can't speak to the exact circumstances."
"Did you prescribe a portable infusion pump?"
Mercer exhaled slowly.
"Ethan, there are clinical details we should discuss in person."
"Did you prescribe it?"
"There are emergency measures in Emmie's care plan."
"That's not what I asked."
"I authorized medication for acute episodes."
"What medication?"
Mercer named a drug.
Dr. Patel shook his head immediately.
It was not what had been found.
Ethan's voice became dangerously quiet.
"That isn't what was in the line."
Silence.
For the first time, Mercer's calm cracked.
"What do you mean?"
"You tell me."
"Ethan, do not make accusations based on preliminary hospital testing."
"Did you come to my house while I was out of town?"
Mercer did not answer.
"Three times?"
"Who told you that?"
Emmie flinched.
Ethan saw it.
"My daughter."
Mercer's next words came too quickly.
"Emmie's recollection is not always reliable during periods of dysregulation."
Ethan felt Ortiz's hand land lightly on his shoulder.
A warning.
Stay calm.
"Did you record her crying?"
Mercer was silent.
"Did you make her repeat answers until she said she was afraid of me?"
The call ended.
Ethan stared at the phone.
Ortiz immediately dialed another number.
"He knows."
"Knows what?"
"That we're looking at him."
Ethan stood.
"Then go get him."
"Already sending a unit."
Dr. Patel checked Emmie's monitor.
"She needs rest."
Maya nodded.
"We'll pause."
Ortiz's phone rang again.
This time she answered with her back to the bed.
Her shoulders stiffened.
"When?"
She listened.
"Secure the computer."
Another pause.
"Do not open anything else until digital forensics gets there."
She ended the call.
"They found the second camera."
"Kitchen?"
"Your study."
Ethan looked at Emmie.
She had been right.
"Anything on it?"
"It stores to a local network recorder."
"Can you see the footage?"
"Not yet."
"What else did they find?"
Ortiz hesitated.
"A folder on Vivian's laptop."
"What folder?"
"It's labeled E.C."
"Emmie Cole."
"Probably."
"What's inside?"
"Scans of your passport."
Ethan frowned.
"My passport?"
"Your driver's license."
"What else?"
"Samples of your signature."
Ethan stopped breathing.
Ortiz continued.
"Dozens of them."
"From where?"
"Checks."
"Contracts."
"Birthday cards."
Ethan looked down at the document on his phone.
TEMPORARY TRANSFER OF MEDICAL AND RESIDENTIAL AUTHORITY.
The forged signature suddenly made sense.
But one question became much worse.
Vivian had not merely copied his name once.
She had been collecting it.
Practicing it.
Preparing for something.
"How long has that folder existed?"
Ortiz checked the message from her partner.
"The earliest file creation date is fourteen months ago."
Ethan's face went cold.
He and Vivian had gotten engaged thirteen months ago.
The false hospitalization claim sent Ortiz back through insurance records.
There were no legitimate admissions.
There were, however, two claims submitted by Mercer's clinic for extended observation services.
Both were billed on weekends Ethan had been traveling.
Both listed Vivian as the responsible adult.
Both included narrative notes saying Emmie became disoriented after contact with her father by phone.
Ethan remembered those weekends.
On one of them, Emmie had sounded sleepy when he called.
Vivian said she had stayed up late watching a movie.
On the other, Emmie had refused to talk longer than a minute.
Vivian said she was being moody.
Ethan had accepted both explanations because they were ordinary.
The falsified records made ordinary memories feel contaminated.
Ortiz warned him not to reinterpret every moment as proof.
"Some things were probably exactly what they looked like."
"How do I tell which?"
"Evidence."
"And when there is none?"
"Then you live with not knowing."
Ethan hated that answer.
But it stopped him from interrogating Emmie about every quiet phone call she had ever made.
He began to understand another way Vivian had damaged them.
May you like
She had not only created false memories on paper.
She had made Ethan suspicious of real memories too.
