Chapter 2 - THE DOCTOR GENE VIEVE FEARED
Lawson reached the twins’ room in less than thirty seconds.
Dr. Yates stood beside Blythe’s bed checking an IV line.
“Step away from my daughter.”
Yates turned.
“Lawson?”
“Now.”
Something in Lawson’s face made him obey.
Prescott positioned himself between Yates and the door.
Elena arrived moments later, breathing hard.
The doctor saw her.
His expression changed.
Not recognition.
Fear.
Lawson noticed.
“You know her.”
Yates recovered quickly.
“I’ve never seen that woman.”
Elena gave a bitter laugh.
“You testified against my research director.”
Silence.
Lawson looked between them.
“What research?”
Elena explained that she had worked as a junior lab technician at St. Vincent.
Genevieve entered a private genetic screening program funded partly by Mercer Biomedical, one of Lawson’s companies.
Lawson felt sick.
His own money.
His own institution.
His own wife.
And he had known none of it.
Yates crossed his arms.
“This is absurd. Elena Ward was dismissed for mishandling patient samples.”
“I was dismissed because I copied Genevieve’s results.”
“Because you stole confidential medical records.”
“Because somebody changed them.”
Lawson stepped closer.
“What changed?”
Elena pointed at the current treatment chart.
“The donor compatibility markers.”
Yates went still.
Lawson looked at him.
“Explain.”
Yates spoke carefully.
“The twins require a marrow transplant. Their donor panel has been exhausted.”
“No,” Elena said. “Their panel was built using the wrong genetic profile.”
Lawson felt the room tilt.
Jonah stirred.
“Dad?”
Lawson immediately went to him.
“I’m here.”
Jonah looked toward Elena.
“Who’s she?”
Elena smiled gently.
“A friend of your mom’s.”
Blythe opened her eyes.
“You knew Mommy?”
“Yes.”
Blythe’s face softened.
“Did she sing badly?”
For the first time Elena laughed.
“Terribly.”
The twins smiled.
Lawson nearly broke.
Then Elena turned serious.
“Mr. Mercer, Genevieve believed there was one donor who might match both children.”
“Who?”
“She never wrote the name.”
Yates interrupted.
“This woman is giving you false hope.”
Elena looked at him.
“No. You are.”
Prescott’s phone buzzed.
He read the message and looked at Lawson.
“We checked Dr. Yates’s car.”
“What about it?”
“There’s luggage in the trunk.”
Yates’s face changed.
Prescott continued.
“And a passport.”
Lawson stared at the doctor.
“You told me you were staying overnight.”
Yates said nothing.
Then Elena looked at the IV bag above Blythe.
Her expression turned white.
“Stop that infusion.”
Yates moved toward her.
“Don’t touch it.”
Elena pointed at the label.
“That drug should never be given to a child with Genevieve’s mutation.”
Lawson looked at Yates.
May you like
And for the first time, he wondered whether the doctor had just been treating his children.
Or finishing something.
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