Chapter 4 - The Ghost Badge
By sunrise, Roman Vale had turned Eleanor’s hospital floor into something resembling a fortress.
Evelyn hated it.
She also understood it.
Two guards stood outside Eleanor’s room. Another watched the elevator. Claire had been moved into a private family suite after Roman discovered a reporter hiding near the nurses’ station.
Dr. Mercer was nowhere to be found.
That worried Evelyn most.
“Roman.”
He looked up from his phone.
“You need to tell the police.”
“I have.”
“All of it?”
A pause.
“That wasn’t my question.”
Roman put the phone down.
“I gave them the attempted unauthorized entry.”
“And Daniel?”
“They know.”
“The files?”
“No.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know which names in those files are trustworthy.”
“You can’t investigate a hospital conspiracy like one of your businesses.”
His eyes sharpened.
“You know surprisingly little about my businesses.”
“I know men stand straighter when you walk into rooms.”
“That happens to attractive men.”
She stared at him.
Roman almost smiled.
It disappeared when Dr. Patel approached.
“I reviewed Eleanor’s medication history.”
They both stood.
Patel lowered her voice.
“I cannot establish intent, but there are irregularities I want pharmacy and compliance to examine.”
“What kind?”
“Medication changes without corresponding documentation. Notes entered after appointments. Two prescriptions attributed to Eleanor that she says she never discussed with Mercer.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
Evelyn asked, “Could the changes have contributed to what happened?”
“They could have affected her risk profile. That is not the same as proving they caused the stroke.”
Roman nodded.
He respected precision.
“Where’s Mercer?”
Patel looked toward the elevator.
“He resigned his hospital privileges twenty minutes ago.”
Evelyn felt her stomach drop.
Roman reached for his phone.
She stopped him.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding him.”
“Through legitimate means?”
He looked at her.
“That hesitation was not reassuring.”
Before he could answer, Eleanor’s weak voice came through the open doorway.
“Roman.”
Everything about him changed.
The feared man vanished.
He entered immediately.
Eleanor looked exhausted, but alert.
Claire sat beside her.
Roman took his mother’s hand.
“You scared me.”
Eleanor’s mouth curved slightly.
“Good.”
His laugh broke unexpectedly.
Evelyn turned away to give them privacy.
“Evelyn.”
She looked back.
Eleanor motioned weakly.
“Come here.”
Evelyn approached.
Eleanor squeezed her fingers.
“You argued with Adrian.”
“Yes.”
“I like you.”
Claire laughed.
Roman shook his head.
“Mother.”
“I’m recovering. I’m allowed opinions.”
Then Eleanor’s expression became serious.
“Adrian has been my doctor for seven years.”
Evelyn crouched beside her.
“Did anything feel unusual recently?”
Eleanor thought.
“He kept insisting I was anxious.”
“Were you?”
“I raised a son like Roman. Of course I’m anxious.”
Claire laughed again.
Roman looked offended.
Then Eleanor whispered:
“He wanted me to sign something.”
Roman’s humor vanished.
“What?”
“Insurance papers, he said.”
“When?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“Did you sign?”
“No.”
“Where are they?”
“My study.”
Roman called his security chief.
Twenty minutes later, the documents were photographed and sent to his phone.
They weren’t insurance papers.
They were amendments to a family trust.
Roman read the first page twice.
“What?”
Claire moved beside him.
Her face changed.
The amendment would have transferred Eleanor’s voting shares in Vale Holdings to a temporary trustee if she became medically incapacitated.
The trustee?
Victor Hale.
Roman’s uncle.
Eleanor’s younger brother.
Claire whispered, “Uncle Victor?”
Roman said nothing.
Evelyn watched his expression become unreadable.
“Who benefits if Eleanor is incapacitated?”
“Victor controls her shares.”
“And combined with his?”
“He can challenge me for control of the company.”
Eleanor looked devastated.
“My brother wouldn’t.”
Roman crouched beside her.
“I don’t know what he would do.”
But Evelyn saw something in his eyes.
He had suspected Victor before.
That afternoon, Roman insisted Evelyn return to the penthouse.
She refused.
“I have rent.”
“You’re suspended.”
“Exactly. Which means I need another job.”
“I’ll hire you.”
“To do what?”
“Tell me when I’m being an idiot.”
She folded her arms.
“You couldn’t afford the overtime.”
Roman laughed.
It was the first real laugh she had heard from him.
For one dangerous second, she forgot who he was.
Then the elevator opened.
Victor Hale stepped out.
He was elegant, silver-haired and smiling.
He embraced Claire.
Kissed Eleanor’s forehead.
Then he saw Evelyn.
His smile vanished.
Only for a fraction of a second.
But Evelyn noticed.
“You.”
Roman immediately looked between them.
“You know Evelyn?”
Victor recovered.
“No.”
“You looked like you did.”
“I’ve seen her photograph online.”
Evelyn stared at him.
Something about his voice bothered her.
Then Victor approached.
“You saved my sister.”
“I noticed something was wrong.”
“That modesty is refreshing.”
He extended his hand.
Evelyn shook it.
And froze.
His cuff shifted.
A distinctive signet ring appeared.
Black stone.
Silver border.
A tiny engraved V.
She had seen that ring before.
Four years earlier.
Outside Margaret Donovan’s hospital room.
Evelyn remembered a man arguing with Jonathan Mercer.
She hadn’t seen his face clearly.
But she remembered his hand gripping the door.
And that ring.
She released Victor immediately.
Roman noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Victor smiled.
But his eyes warned her.
Later, Evelyn found Roman alone near the elevators.
“I lied.”
His attention sharpened.
“About?”
“Victor.”
She told him about the ring.
Roman listened without interrupting.
When she finished, he leaned against the wall.
“My uncle helped raise me.”
“I know what I saw.”
“I believe you.”
That surprised her.
“So easily?”
“No.”
Roman looked through the glass at Eleanor.
“Nothing about this is easy.”
His phone buzzed.
A security alert.
Someone had entered Evelyn’s apartment.
Roman opened the live camera feed his team had installed after Daniel’s death.
A hooded figure searched her bedroom.
Then stopped.
Slowly, the intruder looked directly into the hidden camera.
He removed his hood.
Evelyn gasped.
Roman went completely still.
Dr. Adrian Mercer smiled into the lens.
May you like
Then he held up a handwritten message.
ASK EVELYN WHY SHE REALLY LEFT NURSING SCHOOL.
