Chapter 5 - MY FILE
The screenshot showed my name, my date of birth, and an order marked for genetic testing.
I had never consented to genetic testing.
I had not even been admitted to the hospital that year.
I turned the phone toward Voss.
“Explain this.”
He studied it without expression.
“Screenshots can be manipulated.”
“Then pull the record.”
“We will review the concern through appropriate channels.”
Appropriate channels was becoming a phrase I never wanted to hear again.
David leaned toward my screen.
A small change came over his face.
“That order number belongs to our transplant registry,” he said.
Rebecca looked at me.
“Your name?”
I stepped away from her.
Marcus pressed his palms to his temples.
“Claire, I knew they contacted you once.”
“Who did?”
“An outside research team.”
“Nobody contacted me.”
He stared at me.
I saw, perhaps for the first time, that my husband was not merely hiding something.
He had lost control of it.
I demanded copies of everything legally available to me.
Voss refused to discuss it further without identity verification and a formal request.
That afternoon I left with the uneaten lunch and a new certainty.
There were two different secrets in this hospital.
One was my husband’s illness.
The other involved somebody using his name.
At home, Lily was making a cardboard solar system at the kitchen table.
She lifted her face when I came in.
“Did Daddy like the pie?”
I could not answer.
Instead, I hugged her so tightly she squirmed.
“Mom, you're crushing Saturn.”
I apologized and fixed the bent cardboard ring.
My phone rang as I tucked her into bed.
David spoke without greeting.
“Claire, don’t trust the number that texted you.”
“Why?”
“Because it belongs to Marcus.”
I looked toward the empty half of our bed.
David continued quietly.
May you like
“And Marcus’s phone has been locked in our evidence cabinet since this morning.”
