Chapter 3 - The Intern’s Secret
The next morning, I was finally allowed to go to the NICU to hold Leo for the first time. He was warm and heavy in my arms, his soft hair the same color as Cameron’s, his tiny left hand curled around my finger like he never wanted to let go. The physical therapist had been there earlier, moving his injured arm gently, and she’d said the damage wasn’t permanent—with months of therapy, he’d get most of his movement back. It was the first good news I’d had since I’d gone into labor.
I was sitting in the rocking chair, whispering to him about all the things we’d do together when he was bigger, when the curtain around the bay pulled back. Sophie stood there, no fake tears this time, her arms crossed over her chest, her face cold.
“Get out,” I said, not even looking up from Leo’s face. “You’re not allowed near my son.”
“Relax,” she said, pulling a chair up opposite me, her voice low so the other NICU parents wouldn’t hear. “I’m not here to hurt the baby. I’m here to make you an offer. Drop the lawsuit. Resign from the hospital quietly. And Cameron will give you full custody of Leo, plus a million dollars in cash. No court, no drama, no one has to know what really happened.”
I laughed, pressing a kiss to Leo’s forehead. “A million dollars? That’s all I’m worth to you? You almost killed me. You hurt my son. And you think money fixes that?”
Sophie leaned forward, her eyes glinting. “You think you can win this? My dad is Richard Hale. He owns half the real estate in Boston. He’s the hospital’s biggest donor—he built the entire NICU you’re sitting in right now. Cameron has been covering for my mistakes for six months. I’ve killed two patients, Amelia. Two. And Cameron fixed the charts, paid off the families, made it all go away. Do you really think a little lawsuit from a scorned wife is going to take down my dad, or Cameron, or me?”
My blood ran cold. Two patients. She’d killed two people, and Cameron had covered it up. All because he was sleeping with her. All because he’d rather let innocent people die than risk his perfect reputation.
I slowly shifted Leo to my left arm, making sure my phone—tucked in the pocket of my hospital gown, the voice recorder app running—was angled right at her. “Why are you telling me this?” I asked, keeping my voice steady. “You could have just let the lawsuit play out.”
She smirked, leaning back in her chair. “Because I want you to know how small you are. Cameron never loved you, you know. He married you because you were the smartest, most ambitious doctor in your class—he thought having a Chief of ER wife would make him look good for the Chief of Surgery position. But I make him feel alive. He was going to leave you last month, but then you got pregnant. He said it would be too messy to divorce a pregnant woman. So he waited. And when you hurt me in that delivery room? He saw his chance to punish you. He wanted you to suffer. He hoped something would go wrong so he could blame you.”
The words hit me like a punch to the chest. Seven years of marriage. Seven years of late nights, of shared dreams, of building a life together. And it had all been a lie. He’d never loved me. He’d just used me.
Sophie stood up, adjusting her scrub top. “Think about my offer, Amelia. You have 48 hours. If you don’t accept, we’ll make your life a living hell. We’ll take Leo. We’ll make sure you never work again. We’ll ruin you.”
She turned to walk away, but as she did, her foot caught on the leg of the chair, and she stumbled. Her hand flew out to steady herself—and she saw the phone sticking out of my gown pocket, the red recording light blinking.
Her face went white. “You bitch.” She lunged for me, grabbing for the phone, her nails aiming for my face again. “Give it to me! Give me that phone!”
I twisted away, shielding Leo with my body, but she was strong, and her hand closed around my wrist. I screamed, and a second later, two NICU nurses and a security guard were pulling her off me. She was kicking and yelling, her perfect ponytail coming undone, screaming that I’d attacked her, that I was crazy, that I’d kidnapped her phone.
They dragged her out, and I sat there, shaking, holding Leo tight to my chest, checking to make sure he was okay. He was frowning, but he hadn’t woken up. I pulled the phone out of my pocket, hit stop on the recording, and smiled.
48 hours? She didn’t have 48 minutes.
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I called Elena immediately, playing the recording for her. When I finished, she was quiet for a second, then she laughed—a sharp, victorious sound. “That’s it, Amelia. That’s the smoking gun. We don’t just have medical negligence now. We have manslaughter cover-ups, blackmail, witness tampering. This isn’t just a lawsuit anymore. This is going to take down the entire hospital board. And Richard Hale’s empire with it.”
I looked down at Leo, who was now awake, staring up at me with big blue eyes. “Good,” I said. “Let it burn.”
