Chapter 4 - THE NURSE’S LEDGER
The ballroom seemed to tilt on its axis.
I looked at Claire. The woman I had legally married ten minutes ago. The woman who had sworn she was protecting my family.
“He’s lying,” Claire whispered, her voice trembling violently as she kept the gun trained on Captain Vance. “Richard, don't listen to him! He’s trying to break us!”
“Am I?” Dominic pulled a thick, leather-bound journal from his inner coat pocket and tossed it onto the pristine white tablecloth of the head table.
It was an old hospital logbook, its edges frayed and stained with age.
“That is the original admissions ledger from Mercy General Hospital’s trauma ward,” Dominic said smoothly, walking over to flip open the cover. “Look at page two hundred and fourteen, Richard. Look at who signed off on Amelia’s intake drugs.”
My legs felt like lead. I handed Lily to a trusted nanny who had miraculously remained cowering in the corner, and walked slowly toward the head table.
I looked down at the faded ink.
Patient: Amelia Moretti.Admitted: 11:42 PM.Attending Nurse: Claire Vance.Administered Medication: Pancuronium Bromide (Paralytic).
My breath caught in my throat.
Pancuronium Bromide. A powerful paralytic agent. It was the exact drug used to induce cardiac arrest in trauma patients if administered incorrectly.
“She didn't just let Amelia die,” Dominic said, leaning against the table with a sickening grin. “She administered the paralytic that stopped my sister-in-law’s heart on the operating table. She was my inside woman from day one.”
I slowly raised my head, staring at Claire. The gun in her hand was shaking so badly she could barely hold it steady.
“Claire?” I whispered. “Is this true?”
Tears streamed openly down her cheeks now. She lowered the revolver slightly, her shoulders slumping under the crushing weight of the revelation.
“I had no choice,” she sobbed, the defense crumbling entirely. “My daughter was dying in the pediatric ward down the hall. Dominic approached me. He said he would pay for her experimental bone marrow transplant—two hundred thousand dollars cash—if I administered a fatal dose of paralytic to the Jane Doe they were wheeling in from the car crash.”
She looked at me, pleading with her eyes for mercy. “I didn't know it was Amelia! I swear to God, Richard, I didn't know who she was until I looked at her driver’s license after she was already gone! By then, it was too late! Dominic had me trapped!”
“You murdered my wife,” I said. My voice wasn't loud. It wasn't angry. It was dead. The last warm ember of my soul had just been extinguished.
“I saved my little girl!” Claire screamed, dropping the gun onto the carpet. She fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. “I’m a monster, Richard, I know! But I would do it again for my child! Any mother would!”
Dominic chuckled, walking over to stand above her. He nudged her shoulder with his shiny dress shoe. “A touching performance, really. But now that the family secrets are out in the open, we have a bit of housekeeping to finish.”
He looked up at Captain Vance and the corrupt guards.
“Secure the doors,” Dominic ordered. “Kill the guards loyal to Richard. And take the little girl. We’re moving the syndicate assets to the Cayman Islands tonight, and I need an heir to secure the trust fund.”
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Captain Vance raised his assault rifle, taking a step toward Lily.
Before the captain could pull the trigger, the massive double doors of the ballroom suddenly exploded inward in a storm of splintered wood and flying glass.
