Chapter 2 - THE CAMERA THAT NEVER BLINKED
I barely slept after leaving Suite 914.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Dr. Shaw slipping that mysterious injector into his pocket. I had worked at St. Anne's for three years, and I'd never seen a physician behave like a man hiding evidence.
At seven the next morning, my supervisor summoned me to her office.
"Emily, there's been a complaint about your conduct."
My stomach tightened.
"What kind of complaint?"
"Unauthorized contact with a patient. Specifically, Mr. Hartley."
Someone had reported the kiss.
Heat flooded my face. "I made a mistake. It was inappropriate, and it won't happen again."
My supervisor studied me.
"That's not the only concern. Someone accessed the surveillance footage from Suite 914 last night. The recording shows you standing beside the patient's bed for nearly forty minutes."
Forty minutes?
I had spent less than ten minutes there before discovering the injector.
Someone had altered the footage.
"Who accessed it?"
"Hospital administration."
Before I could ask anything else, my phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent me a photograph of Owen lying in bed.
Beneath it were seven words.
You should have left him sleeping, Emily.
I stared at the message until my hands began shaking.
Then another text appeared.
Your brother Daniel is very easy to find.
Daniel was twenty-two and studying nursing in Boston. He was the only family I had left, and almost nobody in New York knew his name.
I immediately called him.
He answered cheerfully, unaware that my world was falling apart.
After hanging up, I returned to the hospital and found a folded note beneath my cleaning cart.
It contained a room number and a time.
May you like
At the bottom, someone had written a warning.
If you want Owen alive, come alone.
