Chapter 6 - THE CHILDREN USED TO SAVE THE HOSPITAL.
Claire discovered Hale Medical Group had been targeting families with unpaid bills.
When parents could not afford treatment, the hospital referred them to a private “family stability program” funded by Victoria.
The program then petitioned for temporary guardianship of children whose parents were described as financially unstable.
Those children became the faces of charity campaigns that raised millions.
Their families received none of it.
Victoria’s company used poor parents’ hardship as proof they were unfit, then used their children’s photographs to attract wealthy donors.
Maria recognized several names.
One mother lost custody after missing work to stay beside her sick son.
Another father was described as neglectful because he lived in a motel after eviction.
Poverty had been turned into medical evidence.
Claire copied the files onto the memory card.
Then Lily found her own photograph inside a fundraising folder.
The caption called her “an abandoned child rescued by the Hale Foundation.”
Claire was still alive.
The campaign had already been designed.
A speaker crackled above the records-room door.
Victoria’s voice filled the corridor.
“Claire, return Lily now, and I will not press charges.”
Claire answered through the intercom.
“You wrote the charges before I woke up.”
Then the lights went out.
May you like
A red emergency lamp revealed Marcus standing at the opposite end of the corridor.
He held Lily’s medical chart.
