Chapter 6 - The Signature of My Own Doctor
Dr. Reed entered my room twenty minutes later carrying no chart.
He closed the door softly.
His face answered my question before I asked it.
“You signed the verification.”
He looked toward the monitor instead of at me.
“Clara, I can explain.”
Naomi had not returned yet. Evelyn stood near the window, her arms wrapped around herself.
I pressed the call button beneath my palm but did not release it.
“Explain why you told a court-appointed trustee that I was mentally incapable while I was lying here protecting my child from the man who assaulted me.”
Dr. Reed lowered his voice.
“The form I signed was not the form they filed.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“Julian came to my office three weeks ago. He had copies of old prescription records from before your pregnancy.”
“I took anxiety medication after my father died.”
“I know. There was nothing improper about it.”
“Then what did he threaten?”
Dr. Reed’s eyes shifted toward Evelyn.
She understood and stepped into the hallway.
Only then did he speak.
“My son has a gambling problem.”
The confession came out flat, stripped of dignity.
“He owes people money. Julian purchased the debt.”
“How much?”
“Four hundred thousand dollars.”
I stared at him.
“He said he would forgive it if I signed a temporary labor-safety authorization. He claimed you had agreed to transfer medical decision-making during delivery.”
“And you signed without asking me.”
“I thought it applied only if you were unconscious.”
“You are my doctor.”
His shoulders collapsed.
“I know.”
The betrayal hurt differently from Julian’s violence.
Julian had spent years teaching me to expect cruelty from him.
Dr. Reed had listened to Noah’s heartbeat. He had told me which pain was normal and which was dangerous. He had placed his hand over mine when I feared losing the pregnancy.
Now his signature might hand control of my body to the family trying to steal my child.
“Did you sign anything else?”
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
He closed his eyes.
“A hospital transfer preference.”
“To where?”
“Vale Memorial Women’s Center.”
The clinic funded by Beatrice’s foundation.
A facility where the Vale family controlled half the board.
The monitor beside me accelerated.
Dr. Reed stepped forward.
“Your blood pressure is rising.”
“Do not touch me.”
He stopped.
The door opened.
Naomi entered with two hospital administrators and a uniformed officer.
Dr. Reed did not resist when she took his phone.
“I’ll cooperate,” he said. “I have messages. Voicemails. Everything.”
Naomi’s eyes narrowed.
“Why come here voluntarily?”
“Because Julian called me after the arrest.”
“What did he say?”
Dr. Reed finally looked at me.
“He said the transfer had already been approved and that I needed to move Clara before three.”
I checked the clock.
2:41 p.m.
“Why before three?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Naomi opened the digital authorization on her tablet.
Vale Memorial had already dispatched a private medical transport team.
Arrival time: 2:55.
My fear sharpened into calculation.
“Cancel it.”
The administrator shook her head.
“We tried. The request was filed through an emergency judicial portal.”
“By whom?”
“A temporary guardian.”
I felt Noah kick again.
Naomi scrolled down.
The guardian was not Julian.
It was Beatrice.
The door at the end of the maternity corridor opened, and four private security men stepped out beside a wheeled transport bed.
Behind them walked Beatrice, still wearing her pearl gloves.
She smiled through the glass panel of my locked room.
May you like
Then she held up a court order granting her temporary custody of me.
📖 See how Beatrice obtained emergency control over Clara—and why one hidden clause made the order far more dangerous in CHAPTER 7. 👇
