Chapter 13 - A Deadline at Noon
Allison called Rachel and asked her to preserve any relevant footage, appointment records, and communications from the weeks Michael visited her workplace.
Rachel had been careful.
Her office receptionist remembered Michael arriving twice, not once, and the building's entry records confirmed both visits.
The first was before Emily found the spreadsheet.
The second was the morning after Michael learned Rose Ellis had been contacted.
It suggested preparation.
Still, Allison insisted we not assume the visits proved the reason for his hotel expenses.
Rachel was furious at the distinction, but I understood it.
We had to be more exact than Michael.
At eleven that morning, a process server delivered notice of an emergency family-court hearing scheduled for the following day.
Michael was asking for an order restricting my contact with Emily and granting him access to her medical information and belongings.
He described me as a mother manufacturing a crisis to steal business records.
He claimed our daughter's allegations had appeared only after I coached her.
I read those sentences while Emily slept twelve feet away with two IV lines and a drainage tube.
The unfairness was so complete it left me speechless.
Allison's response was immediate.
"We prepare the medical timeline, the messages, and the witness accounts. We don't match him insult for insult."
She arranged for the hospital to provide appropriate records, and she asked whether Rachel could attend.
Rachel said yes before Allison finished the question.
Then Daniel Price made his move.
His attorney delivered a separate demand that all company documents be returned by noon, accompanied by a warning that retaining proprietary information could lead to civil action.
The letter also stated the company would cooperate with lawful investigations.
It was a carefully written contradiction.
Daniel wanted to appear helpful while pressuring the people who had found the records.
Allison replied through proper channels and refused to surrender material that investigators were lawfully preserving without addressing chain of custody.
At 11:47, my phone rang from an unknown number.
The voice belonged to Caroline, the woman with the roses.
"You don't know who you're protecting," she said.
"Who is this?"
"A person who still has a choice."
The line went quiet.
Then she spoke so softly I barely heard her.
"Check the second page of the consent form."
The call ended.
I told Collins, who instructed me not to contact her directly.
Allison reviewed the treatment authorization in the HOME folder.
There was a second page.
I'd barely glanced at it.
Under a section labeled Emergency Contact, Michael had entered Daniel Price's phone number.
Below it was a physician's name I didn't recognize.
Rachel did.
"That's the doctor Michael wanted me to send you to," she said.
I felt the room grow cold.
Then Allison pointed to a date written beside the witness signature.
It was tomorrow's date.
May you like
The page had been prepared in advance for an event that had not happened yet.
