Chapter 6 - THE DRAWING OF THE WHITE ROSE
Jonathan blocked the doorway before Cross entered.
“You are not touching her.”
Cross held up the court order.
“This authorizes consultation.”
“It does not authorize contact.”
“Her condition requires someone familiar with her medical history.”
“Most of the history you supplied was false.”
Cross looked toward Emily through the glass.
“She is confused from prolonged hypoxia.”
Her monitor accelerated again.
Jonathan stepped closer.
“She knows you.”
“Of course she does.”
“She fears you.”
Cross’s expression remained controlled.
“Children absorb adult suspicion.”
Detective Nora arrived with hospital counsel. The court order permitted Cross to review records under supervision but did not compel the hospital to allow physical access during an active criminal investigation.
He was escorted to a separate office.
Emily’s heart rate slowly fell.
She remained too weak to speak. Dr. Bennett offered a communication board, but Emily could not control her fingers reliably.
Malik asked whether she could draw.
He remembered that Emily sometimes held a pencil when she could not explain something aloud.
A therapist supported her hand over a large sheet of paper.
Emily made one uneven line.
Then another.
A flower appeared.
White petals with a dark center.
The same white rose from the note she gave Malik.
Jonathan asked, “Does the rose mean the gala?”
Emily blinked once.
The therapist established that one blink meant yes.
“Did someone put medicine in your drink?”
One blink.
“Was it Dr. Cross?”
Emily’s eyes filled with tears.
She did not blink.
Jonathan tried again.
“Did Cross tell someone else to do it?”
One blink.
“Was it Nurse Morgan?”
Emily’s breathing became shallow.
No answer.
Malik moved beside the bed.
“Did the person wear a white rose?”
Emily blinked once.
At the gala, foundation staff and major donors wore white rose pins in honor of Isabel.
Hundreds of people had them.
Emily’s drawing narrowed nothing.
Then she dragged the pencil downward and added a small black line across the stem.
Jonathan remembered seeing a white rose with a black ribbon somewhere.
Grace searched event photographs.
Senior foundation officers wore ordinary white roses.
Medical staff wore blue badges.
Only one person wore a black ribbon around the flower.
Leah Morgan.
The missing nurse.
Nora showed Emily a still image.
Her monitor rose slightly.
“Did Leah give you the drink?”
Emily blinked once.
“Did she know it was poisoned?”
Emily blinked twice.
They had not established a meaning for two blinks.
Malik understood.
“That means no.”
Jonathan looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Two squeezes means scared. One means yes. She uses two when the answer is more than no.”
Emily blinked twice again.
Leah had handed her the glass but may not have known what it contained.
Nora obtained a warrant for Cross Medical Center.
The pharmacy records showed Cross personally ordered the beta-blocking compound under an experimental-use code. Leah signed it out on the gala afternoon.
The paralytic was removed using another employee’s credentials after that employee had gone home.
Cross had access to both systems.
Leah’s car was found in a hospital parking garage.
Inside, officers discovered her phone beneath the driver’s seat.
A deleted voice message was recovered.
Cross said:
“Give Emily the prepared cider. It is only a mild medication to stop a panic episode before her speech. Jonathan cannot see her unstable tonight.”
Leah replied:
“She has no panic disorder.”
Cross answered:
“Do what I told you, or your son’s treatment records become public.”
Leah had altered records during her son’s illness, apparently at Cross’s direction, to qualify for an experimental program.
He had held that secret over her ever since.
She delivered the drink believing it contained a sedative.
When Emily stopped breathing, Leah realized the truth.
Her final unsent message to Jonathan read:
Cross killed your daughter. I helped him without knowing. I am going to find proof.
The message was created after Emily was declared dead.
Leah had not fled to escape arrest.
May you like
She had disappeared while trying to expose Cross.
👉 The missing nurse was not hiding from the police—she may have been taken before she could reveal where Cross kept the original drug records.
