CHAPTER 6 — THE DOCTOR WHO LIED
CHAPTER 6 — THE DOCTOR WHO LIED
At 3:07 in the morning, Dr. Nathan Reed stopped being afraid of the Thorne family.
He had spent eleven years being afraid of them.
Eleven years of signing documents he didn't agree with.
Eleven years of changing records.
Eleven years of telling himself that silence was not the same as betrayal.
But that night, standing in a locked medical-records room with a copy of Khloe Thorne's file in his hands, Nathan finally understood something.
Silence had consequences.
And those consequences were lying in a hospital bed one floor above him.
Pregnant.
Frightened.
And surrounded by people who wanted her unborn child.
Nathan looked at the old medical file again.
The patient's name was clear.
KHLOE VALE THORNE.
But beneath it was something that shouldn't have existed.
A second patient number.
A second pregnancy assessment.
A second set of laboratory results.
Two pregnancies.
For the same woman.
On the same date.
One record was real.
The other had been manufactured.
Nathan's hands began to shake.
He whispered:
“They changed it.”
Behind him, the door opened.
Nathan spun around.
Marcus Thorne stood in the doorway.
His expression was exhausted.
But his eyes were sharp.
“You're Dr. Reed.”
Nathan nodded.
“Yes.”
“You asked security to bring me here.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
Nathan looked at the file.
“Because you need to know what your family did to your wife.”
Marcus went completely still.
“What did they do?”
Nathan closed the file.
“Before I tell you, I need you to promise me something.”
Marcus frowned.
“What?”
“If I tell you the truth, you won't protect your family because they're your family.”
Marcus stared at him.
“I already chose Khloe.”
Nathan studied his face.
Then quietly said:
“No.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“You don't understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
Nathan's voice trembled.
“Because eleven years ago, I made the same mistake.”
Marcus closed the door behind him.
“What mistake?”
Nathan looked toward the security camera.
Marcus followed his gaze.
“You think they're listening?”
Nathan nodded.
“Your family has monitored this hospital for years.”
“Why?”
“Because this hospital was never just a hospital.”
Marcus's face hardened.
“What does that mean?”
Nathan opened the file.
“It's one of the places they used to control people.”
He turned a page.
“Medical records.”
Another.
“Psychological evaluations.”
Another.
“Pregnancy reports.”
Marcus stared.
“They manipulated medical information.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make people appear unstable.”
Nathan pointed to a series of reports.
“Patients were diagnosed with conditions they didn't have.”
Marcus felt his stomach tighten.
“And Khloe?”
Nathan looked at him.
“She was one of them.”
The first abnormality appeared twelve weeks into Khloe's pregnancy.
Her blood pressure had supposedly risen dangerously.
The record recommended bed rest.
Then came a diagnosis of severe pregnancy anxiety.
Then another diagnosis suggesting emotional instability.
Then a recommendation that Khloe should not make significant financial or legal decisions without supervision.
Marcus stared at the pages.
“That wasn't her.”
“I know.”
“Khloe was never diagnosed with anxiety.”
Nathan shook his head.
“She was.”
Marcus looked at him sharply.
“What?”
“By me.”
Silence.
Nathan lowered his eyes.
“I wrote the report.”
Marcus's voice became cold.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was ordered to.”
“By whom?”
Nathan hesitated.
“Your father.”
Marcus stepped backward.
“My father?”
Nathan nodded.
“He personally contacted me.”
“What did he want?”
“To make Khloe appear medically vulnerable.”
Marcus stared at the report.
“So if she ever challenged the family…”
“She could be declared incapable of making decisions.”
Marcus's jaw tightened.
“And then?”
Nathan didn't answer.
Marcus already knew.
“Her assets.”
“Yes.”
“Her trust.”
“Yes.”
“The baby.”
Nathan looked away.
“Yes.”
Marcus returned to Khloe's room before dawn.
She was awake.
She had been waiting.
“You found something.”
Marcus sat beside her.
“Yes.”
“What?”
He took her hand.
“Your medical records were falsified.”
Khloe stared at him.
“What?”
“They tried to make you look mentally unstable.”
Her eyes widened.
“Why?”
“So someone could eventually claim you weren't capable of controlling your own property.”
Khloe's face became pale.
“I knew it.”
Marcus looked at her.
“You knew?”
She nodded slowly.
“When I was pregnant, one doctor kept telling me I was imagining things.”
“What things?”
“That people were following me.”
“That someone had changed my medication.”
“That my appointments were being moved without telling me.”
Marcus felt a chill.
“Did you tell anyone?”
“I told you.”
He froze.
“I don't remember.”
“You said I was stressed.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
She was right.
He remembered.
She had called him one night.
She had been crying.
She told him she didn't trust the clinic.
He had been at a business dinner.
He had told her to sleep.
He had promised they would talk the next day.
The next day never came.
Because the next morning, Khloe had been hospitalized.
And the doctor had told Marcus she was suffering from severe anxiety.
Marcus looked at her now.
“I failed you.”
Khloe squeezed his hand.
“You didn't know.”
“I should have.”
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt.
But Marcus deserved it.
At 6:20 a.m., Dr. Reed brought them the original records.
Not copies.
Originals.
Hidden inside an old archive.
Khloe's eyes moved across the pages.
Then she stopped.
“That's not my signature.”
Marcus looked down.
“What?”
“This.”
A consent form.
It supposedly authorized a medical procedure during her pregnancy.
Khloe shook her head.
“I never signed this.”
Nathan nodded.
“You weren't supposed to.”
Marcus looked at him.
“What procedure?”
Nathan's expression darkened.
“Amniotic fluid testing.”
Khloe frowned.
“Why?”
“To determine genetic paternity.”
Marcus's eyes narrowed.
“You tested the baby?”
Nathan nodded.
“Without our consent.”
“What were the results?”
Nathan didn't answer.
Marcus stepped forward.
“What were the results?”
Nathan finally said:
“The result was inconclusive.”
Khloe looked confused.
“Inconclusive?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Nathan swallowed.
“Because the sample wasn't yours.”
Silence.
Marcus stared at him.
“What?”
“The laboratory received a contaminated sample.”
“Contaminated with what?”
“Another woman's DNA.”
Khloe's face went white.
Nathan continued.
“The report was then altered to suggest uncertainty about the baby's paternity.”
Marcus finally understood.
They hadn't needed a real paternity test.
They needed a fake one.
Something confusing enough to create doubt.
Something they could later use against Khloe.
Isabella's voice returned to him.
Make Marcus believe the child isn't his.
It had all been planned.
But Nathan wasn't finished.
“There is something worse.”
Marcus looked at him.
“What?”
Nathan opened another file.
“This was recorded three weeks before Khloe's pregnancy.”
The document was a fertility consultation.
The patient wasn't Khloe.
It was Isabella.
Marcus's expression changed.
“Why does she have a fertility record?”
Nathan looked at him.
“Because she was never pregnant.”
Marcus stared.
“She told me she was.”
“I know.”
“She showed me ultrasound photographs.”
“They were fabricated.”
Marcus's breathing stopped.
Nathan continued:
“She was preparing to claim your child wasn't hers.”
Marcus stared at him.
“Why?”
Nathan pointed to the date.
The consultation happened exactly two days before Isabella first approached him about having an affair.
“She already knew about Khloe.”
Marcus's face hardened.
“She planned the affair.”
“Yes.”
“She planned the pregnancy story.”
“Yes.”
“She planned the attack.”
Nathan nodded.
“Everything.”
Marcus slowly sat down.
For months, he had believed his affair with Isabella had been his greatest betrayal.
Now he realized it had been a trap.
A carefully designed trap.
He had not chosen Isabella.
She had been placed in front of him.
Then Khloe noticed something.
“Dr. Reed.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you telling us now?”
Nathan went silent.
Marcus looked at him.
“That's what I was wondering.”
Nathan stared at the floor.
Then slowly reached into his coat.
He pulled out a small envelope.
“I kept this for eleven years.”
Marcus took it.
There was no name on the front.
Inside was a photograph.
Victor Thorne.
Standing beside a young woman.
Elena Vale.
And another man.
Marcus recognized him immediately.
His father.
But there was something else.
A little girl stood between them.
Khloe.
She was perhaps five years old.
Marcus stared.
“This photograph shouldn't exist.”
Nathan nodded.
“It was taken before your father supposedly discovered Elena's existence.”
Khloe looked at the photograph.
Her hands began shaking.
“I remember that day.”
Marcus looked at her.
“What?”
“The red house.”
She closed her eyes.
“My mother took me somewhere.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
She opened her eyes.
“But your father was there.”
Marcus froze.
“What did he say?”
Khloe swallowed.
“He told my mother…”
She stopped.
Marcus waited.
“He said, ‘If she ever learns who she really is, they'll come for her.’”
Nathan looked at Marcus.
“Your father wasn't trying to destroy Khloe.”
Marcus frowned.
“Then what was he doing?”
Nathan's expression was grim.
“He was trying to hide her.”
Marcus stared.
That changed everything.
The door suddenly opened.
Daniel entered.
“Marcus.”
Marcus looked at him.
“What happened?”
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“Isabella is gone.”
Marcus stood.
“What do you mean gone?”
“She disappeared from the hospital.”
“Security?”
“Disabled.”
“Cameras?”
“Cut.”
Marcus's expression hardened.
“Who helped her?”
Daniel hesitated.
“We don't know.”
Then he handed Marcus a photograph.
A security image.
A black SUV leaving the hospital garage.
Isabella was inside.
But she wasn't alone.
Someone sat beside her.
Marcus stared at the figure.
His blood ran cold.
His father.
Daniel looked at him.
“Sir?”
Marcus said nothing.
He simply stared at the screen.
His father had supposedly been dead for years.
Now he had helped Isabella escape.
And if the doctor was telling the truth, the man Marcus had spent years believing was dead had been moving pieces behind the scenes all along.
An hour later, Marcus stood outside Khloe's room.
Daniel approached.
“We found the SUV.”
“Where?”
“Twenty miles north.”
“Did you find Isabella?”
“No.”
“Her father?”
“No.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“But we found something else.”
“What?”
“A storage facility.”
Marcus looked at him.
“What was inside?”
“Medical equipment.”
“Anything else?”
Daniel hesitated.
“A nursery.”
Marcus froze.
“A nursery?”
“Yes.”
“For one child?”
Daniel nodded.
“A boy.”
Marcus's stomach dropped.
“Was it prepared recently?”
“No.”
“How long?”
Daniel looked at the report.
“According to the equipment dates…”
He paused.
“Approximately seven months.”
Marcus stared at him.
Seven months.
Almost exactly when Khloe's pregnancy had begun.
Someone had prepared a nursery before the child was even born.
A crib.
Clothes.
Medical equipment.
Security cameras.
Everything.
Daniel handed him one final photograph.
On the wall above the crib was a name.
THORNE HEIR.
Marcus looked at it.
Then slowly clenched his fist.
“They knew.”
Daniel nodded.
“They knew Khloe would have a boy.”
Marcus looked toward Khloe's room.
“How?”
Neither man had an answer.
Then Marcus remembered the falsified medical records.
The stolen genetic sample.
The hidden trust.
The secret nursery.
The woman claiming to be pregnant.
The mysterious father.
Everything suddenly pointed toward one terrifying possibility.
Someone had access to information about Khloe's pregnancy before Marcus did.
Someone inside the medical system.
Someone who knew the baby's sex.
Someone who knew the trust.
Someone who knew exactly when the child would be born.
Marcus turned to Daniel.
“Find every doctor who accessed Khloe's file.”
“We already started.”
“Not just doctors.”
Marcus's voice hardened.
“Nurses. Technicians. Administrators. Laboratory workers. Everyone.”
Daniel nodded.
“And Marcus…”
“Yes?”
“There was one name.”
Marcus looked at him.
“A doctor.”
“Who?”
Daniel handed him the file.
Marcus read the name.
His expression changed.
Because the doctor who had accessed Khloe's medical records most frequently wasn't Nathan Reed.
It wasn't any doctor currently treating her.
It was someone Marcus knew.
Someone who had attended his wedding.
Someone who had signed the original marriage certificate as a witness.
Someone who had stood beside Isabella at the gala.
Dr. Adrian Thorne.
Marcus's own uncle.
And beneath his name was a note from the hospital system:
ACCESS RESTRICTED — FAMILY AUTHORIZATION.
Marcus looked toward Khloe's room.
Then at Daniel.
“Get the police.”
Daniel nodded.
“And Marcus?”
Marcus's eyes hardened.
“Do not let my uncle leave the city.”
Because now Marcus finally understood.
The person who knew the most about Khloe's pregnancy…
May you like
might also be the person who had been controlling it from the beginning.
TO BE CONTINUED…
