“If you inject me with anything, you will go to federal prison,” Maya said, staring directly into the guard’s eyes.
She reached into the pocket of her gown with her free hand and pulled out the folded printouts. With a sharp flick of her wrist, she slapped the papers directly against the guard’s chest.
“Look at them,” Maya commanded.
The guard blinked, momentarily confused by her calmness. He glanced down at the papers he had reflexively caught.
“Don’t look at those, she’s delusional!” Dr. Evans shouted, marching down the hall. He reached out to snatch the papers, but Maya shifted her weight and shoved Dr. Evans hard in the chest with her free hand, sending the older man stumbling backward a step.
“I said look at them!” Maya snapped at the guard.
The guard looked at the top page.
“That is the internal hospital log,” Maya said, her voice ringing down the concrete hallway. “It proves that Dr. Evans bypassed the ethics committee. He swapped my clean bloodwork with the drug-positive bloodwork of an ER patient to justify holding me. The original accession numbers are printed right there on the second page.”
The guard frowned, his eyes scanning the highlighted metadata. He looked up at Dr. Evans, who had suddenly gone very pale.
“That’s—that’s fabricated!” Dr. Evans stammered, wiping sweat from his forehead. “She hacked the system! She’s experiencing a severe paranoid break!”
“She didn’t hack anything,” a new voice rang out.
Sarah stepped out of the stairwell behind Dr. Evans. She wasn’t alone.
Standing beside the young nurse were two uniformed police officers and a tall, distinguished-looking man in a tailored suit—the Chief of Medicine for the hospital.
Eleanor’s face drained of color.
“I pulled the logs myself, Dr. Weaver,” Sarah said, addressing the Chief of Medicine. “Dr. Evans signed the involuntary commitment order an hour before Mrs. Vance even arrived at the clinic. And I personally witnessed him accept a cash envelope from the mother-in-law in the fourth-floor waiting area.”
The hallway went dead silent.
The Chief of Medicine, Dr. Weaver, looked at the forged papers in the security guard’s hand, then turned his gaze slowly toward Dr. Evans.
“Is this true, Richard?” Dr. Weaver asked, his voice dangerously low.
Dr. Evans opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He looked at Eleanor, desperately seeking a lifeline.
Eleanor immediately stepped backward, raising her hands in defensive horror. “I have no idea what they’re talking about! This doctor told me my daughter-in-law was sick! I simply followed his medical advice! If he falsified records, he did it on his own!”
“You lying witch!” Dr. Evans exploded, his professional veneer shattering completely. He pointed a trembling finger at Eleanor. “You offered me fifty thousand dollars! You said you needed her declared incompetent so you could seize the life insurance trust!”
Eleanor scoffed, adjusting her pearl necklace with shaking fingers. “That is absurd. Officer, arrest this man for malpractice. And get my granddaughter away from this raving lunatic of a mother.”
She reached out to grab Chloe’s arm.
Maya slapped Eleanor’s hand away with such force the older woman stumbled against the elevator door.
“Don’t you ever try to touch my daughter again,” Maya said, her voice dropping to a lethal whisper.