Chapter 5 - The Snake in the White Coat
The red lights of the ambulance sliced through the dark Manhattan streets as the vehicle tore toward St. Jude’s Private Hospital at ninety miles an hour.
Inside the rear cabin, the atmosphere was chaotic. Paramedics pushed emergency doses of epinephrine and dobutamine into Lauren’s IV lines, fighting desperately to keep her failing heart pumping blood to her brain.
Alexander sat on the small metal bench, holding Sophia against his chest, shielding her eyes from the needles and tubes. He never let go of Lauren’s left hand.
“Hold on, my love,” Alexander prayed silently, his forehead pressed against Lauren’s knuckles. “Just hold on.”
The ambulance pulled into the private underground bay of St. Jude’s Hospital.
The double doors flew open, and a team of eight top cardiac specialists, led by Chief of Medicine Dr. Marcus Harrison, rushed forward to receive the gurney.
“What do we have?” Dr. Harrison demanded, pushing the gurney rapidly down the spotless, gleaming white corridor.
“Twenty-eight-year-old female, end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy, severe malnutrition, bilateral pulmonary edema!” the paramedic yelled over the sound of running boots. “BP is 65 over 40!”
“Get her to OR Three!” Harrison commanded. “Prep the ECMO machine! Call Dr. Chen for emergency bypass insertion!”
As they rounded the corner toward the surgical wing, a man in a pristine doctor’s coat stepped out of an office, blocking the hallway.
It was Dr. Edmund Vale—the Sterling family physician who had signed Lauren’s fatal diagnosis three years ago.
“What is going on here?” Dr. Vale demanded smoothly, holding up his hands. “Harrison, stop! This patient is not cleared for admission under the Sterling family trust protocol!”
Alexander stepped out from behind the gurney.
His eyes were bloodshot, his suit ruined, his presence terrifying.
Dr. Vale turned pale the moment he recognized Alexander. “Alexander? What… what are you doing here? Your mother told me you were at her birthday gala—”
Before Vale could finish his sentence, Alexander grabbed the senior physician by his silk necktie, slamming him brutally against the wall!
THUD!
Medical charts scattered across the shiny floor.
“Alexander!” Dr. Harrison gasped, stopping the gurney team.
“You,” Alexander hissed into Vale’s ear, his jaw muscles clenching until they looked like iron cables. “You signed her death sentence three years ago. My mother paid you, didn't she? She paid you to falsify her prognosis and keep her out of every medical registry in the state!”
“Alexander… please… you don't understand the medical ethics—” Vale stammered, his eyes bulging as Alexander’s grip tightened around his throat.
“Where is the money, Vale?” Alexander growled. “How much did Victoria pay you to let my wife die in a basement?”
“I… I didn't know she was in a basement!” Vale choked out, clutching at Alexander’s wrists. “Victoria told me… she told me Lauren was placed in a private care hospice in Switzerland! She said Lauren wanted to pass away in peace without burdening you!”
Alexander threw Vale to the floor like a sack of trash.
He turned to Dr. Harrison. “Harrison, take Vale’s credentials immediately. Freeze his access to every medical record in this facility and have security hold him in the executive conference room until the police arrive.”
“Understood, Mr. Sterling,” Harrison said without a second of hesitation.
Alexander pointed to the doors of Operating Room Three. “Save my wife, Marcus. Save her, or burn this hospital to the ground.”
Dr. Harrison nodded grimly. “We’ll do everything humanly possible, Alexander. Go wait in the private lounge with your daughter.”
May you like
The heavy double doors of the operating room swung shut. The bright red light above the doorway illuminated: SURGERY IN PROGRESS.
Alexander stood alone in the quiet corridor, his wet clothes heavy, his heart bleeding, holding the sleeping, exhausted body of his little girl.
