Chapter 5 - THE FILE WITH LILY’S NAME
I wanted to call David and scream.
I did not.
I called Lily’s hospital privacy office.
That was the difference between anger and evidence.
“Did Mercer Consulting receive my daughter’s medical billing information?”
The privacy officer did not answer immediately.
She opened a formal inquiry.
Within hours, the hospital compliance department became involved.
I learned an important fact:
The spreadsheet did not contain clinical details.
No diagnosis.
No notes.
Only age, projected balance, insurance category, and payer data.
Still sensitive.
Still something that needed authorization and proper business arrangements.
Why had David seen it?
He was Lily’s father.
That alone did not give his consulting company unlimited right to use her financial data for commercial testing.
Then hospital compliance called again.
Project Atlas had been piloted using de-identified billing data.
Lily’s initials should not have appeared.
Someone had manually created a sample profile.
User account:
MERCER_D.
David.
My stomach turned.
He had entered her himself.
Why?
Maybe because he knew the numbers.
Maybe because he wanted a realistic test case.
Maybe because he saw no boundary between family and business.
That possibility was almost worse because it was believable.
I called him.
He answered instantly.
“Finally.”
“Did you enter Lily’s hospital costs into Atlas?”
Silence.
“What are you talking about?”
“Project Atlas.”
Another silence.
He knew.
“Clara, you’re digging into things you don’t understand.”
“So explain.”
“It was a test profile.”
“Our daughter.”
“No clinical data was used.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“It is exactly the point.”
His voice became impatient.
“Atlas is legitimate. The hospital approved a pilot.”
“Did they approve you using Lily?”
“She’s my child too.”
There it was.
Ownership again.
“I used numbers I already knew.”
“While she was hospitalized.”
“It was harmless.”
“You monetized her vulnerability.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Then he made another mistake.
“This is exactly why I didn’t tell you about North Shore.”
I went still.
“What?”
He stopped.
Too late.
“North Shore is yours?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You just did.”
“Clara—”
“What else is hidden there?”
He hung up.
Rebecca smiled without humor when I told her.
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“Because people under pressure start correcting facts we haven’t alleged yet.”
The next morning, Vancouver hospital social work contacted me because David had listed me as emergency family.
His condition was stable.
Emily was being discharged soon.
David would remain hospitalized longer.
He had asked whether I would arrange transfer to a private rehabilitation facility in the United States.
I said no.
Not vindictively.
He had insurance.
He had counsel.
He could make his own arrangements.
Then the social worker said:
“There’s an issue with his insurance.”
“What issue?”
“His private policy appears to have lapsed.”
My stomach tightened.
David handled family insurance.
Our policy?
Lily?
I immediately called our insurer.
Lily remained covered under my employer plan.
Thank God.
David had separately moved himself onto an executive policy through Mercer Consulting.
That policy had lapsed for nonpayment two months earlier.
Why would a supposedly successful businessman fail to pay insurance?
The answer arrived that afternoon.
Mercer Consulting had missed payroll-tax deposits.
Project Atlas had drained far more money than we realized.
May you like
David’s career wasn’t simply built on lies.
His company might be collapsing.
