Chapter 3 - The Real Folder
The attorney stopped when he saw Claire through the glass.
“Mrs. Mercer was supposed to be sedated.”
Claire heard him.
“So that’s why my pain medication was changed.”
Leah checked the medication chart.
An additional sedative had been requested forty minutes earlier.
Claire’s physician had rejected it.
The request came from Margaret’s private family office.
Margaret’s voice sharpened.
“It was intended to help her rest.”
“During the vote?” Ethan asked.
“She needed recovery.”
“She needed to be unable to object.”
The attorney opened the real packet.
It stated Claire had voluntarily transferred temporary custodial authority because postpartum exhaustion impaired her judgment.
A physician certification was attached.
The signature belonged to a doctor who had never examined Claire.
He served on Margaret’s foundation board.
Leah looked at the attorney.
“You prepared medical incapacity papers without speaking to the patient?”
He glanced at Margaret.
“I relied on family representations.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“In this hospital, rich relatives count as medical evidence?”
No one answered.
The packet also authorized the newborn’s movement to the founders’ floor.
Once photographed beside Margaret and entered into the private family registry, the child’s trust account would recognize Margaret as interim representative.
Ethan turned toward his mother.
“You planned to create a record before Claire could leave bed.”
Margaret remained composed.
“The board needed certainty.”
“The board needed our child’s vote.”
“The hospital needs decisive leadership.”
Claire pressed her palm against the glass.
“The clinic serves eight thousand mothers a year.”
“The clinic loses money.”
“So did this maternity floor before nurses accepted wage freezes.”
Silence.
Leah knew that history.
Her mother had been one of those nurses.
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Then the hospital finance director arrived with the sale report.
The private founders’ floor had been renovated using money taken from the employee maternity fund.
