Chapter 7
Elena woke the following morning with her father beside the bed.
Dr. Marcus Vance had retired from medicine five years earlier after serving as chief of emergency services at the same hospital.
Preston had always dismissed him as an old physician whose influence had faded.
He was wrong.
Marcus held Elena’s hand carefully, avoiding the IV.
Her voice was rough.
“The baby?”
“Stable.”
She closed her eyes, relief moving across her face.
Then she remembered.
“Preston?”
Marcus did not soften the truth.
“Suspended.”
Elena’s eyes opened again.
“He delayed the C-section.”
“Yes.”
“He tried to stop Laura.”
“Yes.”
“Khloe lied.”
“Yes.”
Elena stared at the ceiling.
A tear moved silently into her hair.
Marcus did not tell her to forgive.
He did not tell her Preston had panicked afterward.
He did not praise the desperate way Preston had begged outside surgery.
He said only, “You warned him as a doctor and trusted him as a husband. He ignored both.”
That sentence gave Elena permission to stop separating the betrayals.
Preston had not merely failed medically.
He had used medicine to control her.
Marcus placed a sealed folder on the bedside table.
“The hospital preserved the recording.”
Elena looked at him.
“Have you heard it?”
“Yes.”
May you like
His jaw tightened.
“Every word.”
