CHAPTER 6 : THE SIGNATURE WITH MY NAME
I laughed because the alternative was screaming.
“I never signed anything like that.”
Marjorie looked down.
“You signed emergency paperwork after Sophie lost consciousness.”
“I authorized a blood transfusion.”
“That was what the nurse told you.”
My memories of that night came back in broken pieces.
Sophie bleeding.
A doctor running into the room.
A clipboard placed beneath my hands.
Someone saying there was no time.
I had signed wherever they pointed.
“You used my signature.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then who did?”
“Meredith added the experimental procedure after you signed the final page.”
Daniel paced toward the window.
“My mother falsified medical consent?”
“She believed the treatment would stabilize Sophie’s marrow.”
“Did it?”
“For a while.”
“Then why does she have leukemia?” I asked.
Marjorie’s face tightened.
“Because the donor cells may have carried an abnormal mutation.”
The meaning reached me slowly.
“You’re saying the treatment might have caused this.”
“It may have accelerated it.”
Daniel pulled out his phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
Marjorie grabbed his wrist.
“You cannot.”
He looked down at her hand.
“Take your hand off me.”
“If this becomes public before Sophie gains access to the trial, Meredith will close every door.”
“She already closed enrollment.”
“She can still approve compassionate use.”
“You want us to protect the woman who may have caused Sophie’s cancer?”
“I want Sophie alive long enough to receive justice.”
Daniel lowered the phone.
He hated the logic, but so did I.
“What happened to the consent form?” I asked.
“It was kept in a private research archive. Samuel discovered it recently.”
“Does he know everything?”
“I don’t know how much Meredith admitted.”
My phone rang.
Lena.
I answered.
“Ethan, come back now.”
“What happened?”
“Sophie’s infection is spreading. They’re discussing putting her on a ventilator.”
I left without another word.
At the hospital, I found Sophie struggling to breathe. Her skin looked almost translucent beneath the lights.
Dr. Patel explained that the antibiotics were not controlling the infection quickly enough.
“We may need to sedate and intubate her,” he said.
“Will she wake up?”
“That is our goal.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only honest answer I can give.”
Sophie lifted one trembling hand.
“Can I have a minute with Ethan?”
Everyone stepped out.
I moved to her bedside.
She looked at me through the oxygen mask.
“You’re crying,” she whispered.
I touched my face and realized she was right.
“I’m sorry.”
“For crying?”
“For all of it.”
She closed her eyes briefly.
“What happened at your mother’s house?”
I could not lie anymore.
“There was an unauthorized treatment after the second miscarriage.”
Her eyes opened.
“What treatment?”
I explained as carefully as possible.
Her breathing became faster.
“You signed the consent?”
“I signed emergency forms. I didn’t know what they added.”
“But your name is there.”
“Yes.”
She looked away.
For one horrible second, I saw fear in her expression.
Fear of me.
“I would never have agreed to an experiment without telling you.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
She nodded faintly.
“I know the man you were then.”
The words hurt in a different way.
“And the man I became?”
“I’m still deciding.”
Despite everything, a broken laugh escaped me.
She almost smiled.
Then her face became serious.
“If I don’t wake up—”
“Don’t.”
“Ethan.”
“You’re going to wake up.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I need to believe it.”
“You believed divorce would fix everything too.”
I lowered my head.
She reached for my hand.
“I’m not saying that to hurt you.”
“I know.”
“I need you to promise something.”
“Anything.”
“If I die, don’t spend the rest of your life punishing yourself.”
My throat closed.
“I can’t promise that.”
“Then promise you’ll try.”
I pressed her hand against my cheek.
“I’ll try.”
“And don’t let them turn me into evidence before they remember I was a person.”
“I won’t.”
“Tell Lena I’m sorry.”
“You can tell her.”
“Tell Samuel…”
She hesitated.
“What?”
“Tell him being afraid doesn’t make him innocent.”
“I will.”
“And Ethan?”
“Yes?”
Her eyes met mine.
“I never stopped loving you. I hated myself for it, but I didn’t.”
The room blurred.
“I never stopped either.”
“That doesn’t mean we should have stayed married.”
“I know.”
“Sometimes love isn’t enough.”
“No.”
“But maybe it can be the beginning of something better.”
The medical team entered.
I stepped away as they prepared the medication.
Sophie kept her eyes on me until the sedative began to work.
“Don’t leave,” she whispered.
“I’m here.”
“Even when I can’t see you?”
“Especially then.”
Her eyes closed.
The doctors placed the breathing tube.
For the next thirty-six hours, I remained beside her.
Lena slept in the waiting room. Samuel moved between Sophie’s room and endless meetings. Daniel researched the experimental infusion and quietly gathered evidence.
Meredith Grant did not visit.
On the second morning, Samuel entered carrying a folder.
“The trial team has denied compassionate access.”
“Why?” I demanded.
“Meredith claims Sophie is too unstable.”
“Is she wrong?”
Samuel hesitated.
“The treatment is risky while an infection is active.”
“So we wait.”
“If Sophie improves.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
He did not answer.
Daniel entered behind him.
“My mother didn’t deny the request because of medical risk.”
Samuel looked at him sharply.
“How do you know?”
“I accessed the committee correspondence.”
“You accessed confidential files?”
“I received them from a source.”
“Who?”
Daniel glanced toward the doorway.
A woman stood there in a dark blue suit.
She was in her late fifties, striking and severe. Her eyes were identical to Daniel’s.
Meredith Grant entered the room.
Samuel’s posture stiffened.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
She ignored him and looked at Sophie through the glass.
“So that’s her.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“You’ve known about her for thirty-four years, and that’s all you can say?”
Meredith’s expression did not change.
“I came to correct several misunderstandings.”
“Did you authorize the bone marrow infusion?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Without Sophie’s consent?”
“It was an emergency.”
“Did you alter the paperwork?”
“I expanded the authorization to include the necessary procedure.”
“You forged it.”
“I saved her life that night.”
“And gave her leukemia.”
Meredith turned toward me.
“There is no proof of that.”
“There will be,” Daniel said.
She looked at her son.
“You have always preferred scandal to truth.”
“No. I prefer truth when powerful people call it scandal.”
Meredith placed a sealed packet on the table.
“This contains the donor information from Sophie’s infusion.”
Samuel reached for it.
Meredith stopped him.
“You should understand what it means before opening it.”
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“The donor cells did not come from an anonymous volunteer.”
Daniel’s face went pale.
“Whose cells were they?”
Meredith looked at Samuel.
“His.”
Sophie had received cells from her biological father without knowing who he was.
Samuel stared at his wife.
“You told me the samples were for research comparison.”
“They were compatible and immediately available.”
“You used me.”
“I used a viable treatment.”
Samuel opened the packet with shaking hands.
After reading the first page, his face collapsed.
“What?” Daniel demanded.
Samuel looked at Sophie through the glass.
“The abnormal cells weren’t carried by the donor.”
Hope flickered.
“Then what caused the leukemia?” I asked.
Samuel turned another page.
“The treatment didn’t cause it.”
Meredith folded her arms.
“I told you.”
But Samuel continued reading.
His expression grew even darker.
“No,” he whispered. “This is worse.”
He turned the report toward us.
The genetic profile showed that Sophie’s current leukemia cells did not entirely match her own DNA.
Daniel read the conclusion aloud.
“Foreign malignant cell population.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
Samuel looked at me.
“It means someone introduced cancerous cells into Sophie’s body.”
