Chapter 8 - A Signature Under Oath
Dr. Vale appeared by video during a preliminary evidentiary hearing.
He looked uneasy before anyone asked him a question.
Elise questioned him carefully about the medical declaration bearing his signature.
He acknowledged that he had met Corinne as a patient and spoken briefly with Nathan about an elderly relative who reportedly needed supervision.
But he said he had never examined me and had not intended his notes to serve as a formal competency assessment.
Trask argued that the wording had been misunderstood.
Elise displayed the document Nathan filed.
It said in plain language that Dr. Vale had personally evaluated Quinn Braddock.
The physician looked at it for a long time.
“That's not the document I prepared,” he said.
The courtroom became quiet.
He explained that his office had produced a general referral letter for an assessment.
Someone had altered it into a declaration.
He didn't know who.
The judge ordered preservation of the clinic's records and referred the apparent discrepancy to the appropriate authorities for review.
He made clear that an allegation was not yet a criminal finding.
Nathan stared at the video screen as if the physician were deliberately betraying him.
Corinne held herself so still that the movement of her jaw was the only sign of anger.
Outside the hearing room, she caught up with me near the elevator.
“You've destroyed a doctor's reputation,” she hissed.
“I didn't write the document,” I answered.
“Neither did I.”
“Then the truth should help you.”
She looked away.
I knew what that gesture meant.
Corinne had always been bold when she could control the room.
Uncertainty made her dangerous.
Elise touched my arm and guided me toward the elevator before the conversation could escalate.
In the parking lot, we received the independent evaluator's report.
It found that I could understand and communicate decisions about my residence, medical care, finances, and legal affairs.
No finding of incapacity was supported by the evaluation.
I thought I would feel triumphant.
Instead, I sat in the passenger seat and cried.
Not because I feared losing anymore, but because a stranger had been required to certify what my son should have known.
Elise let me have a moment.
Then she showed me the last page of the developer's correspondence.
Nathan had promised delivery of clear title to my land by a specific date.
That date was only nine days away.
“If his petition fails, he can't make that promise good,” she said.
“What happens then?”
“I don't know.”
Neither did I.
May you like
But I knew desperation, and I had never seen anyone as desperate as my son was becoming.
