Chapter 7 - THE DOCTOR IN THE ROOM
Dr. Mercer held a syringe.
Dr. Collins moved between us.
“What is in your hand?”
He smiled.
“Magnesium.”
“No label.”
“It was prepared downstairs.”
Dr. Collins did not move.
“Put it down.”
Mercer’s smile faded.
“You always were self-righteous, Rebecca.”
“You altered her records.”
“I corrected them.”
“You poisoned my patient.”
“I treated anxiety.”
“You assisted attempted murder.”
His hand tightened around the syringe.
Claire reached toward the emergency button.
Mercer pointed at her.
“Don’t.”
I looked toward the locked hallway door.
The nurse had stepped out seconds earlier.
No one knew Mercer had entered through the staff room.
Dr. Collins kept her voice calm.
“Ryan abandoned you.”
Mercer’s eyes flickered.
“He is downstairs.”
“With attorneys and private guards. You are alone in a locked room holding an unmarked syringe.”
Mercer glanced toward me.
“He promised protection.”
“He bought two life insurance policies.”
His face changed.
He did not know.
Dr. Collins saw it.
“You were never his partner. You were evidence.”
Mercer’s breathing became uneven.
“He needed my credentials.”
“And now he needs you silent.”
The fetal monitor alarmed.
My daughter’s heartbeat slowed again.
Mercer looked at the screen instinctively.
Dr. Collins lunged.
She caught his wrist.
The syringe flew across the floor.
Claire hit the emergency button.
Mercer shoved Dr. Collins into the wall and grabbed my IV tubing.
I screamed as he pulled me toward him.
He wrapped the line around my throat.
“Open the door!”
Dr. Collins struck him across the face with the metal chart.
He staggered.
I drove my heel into his knee.
He fell against the examination bed.
The door burst open.
Security officers pinned him to the floor.
The nurse recovered the syringe.
Laboratory testing later showed it contained potassium chloride.
A direct injection could have stopped my heart.
Mercer screamed as police handcuffed him.
“Ryan made me do it!”
Dr. Collins stood over him.
“No. Ryan gave you permission to become what you already were.”
The officers dragged him into the hallway.
Claire searched his pockets.
She found a burner phone.
One unread message from Ryan:
IF SHE SURVIVES, YOU DON’T.
Mercer saw it.
His face collapsed.
“I’ll tell you everything.”
The prosecutor arrived within twenty minutes.
Mercer confessed to altering blood pressure records, prescribing sedatives under false names, and helping Ryan stage psychiatric episodes.
He also revealed the truth about the transfer order.
Judge Vale did not merely sign it.
He helped design the plan.
Ryan had promised him half a million dollars after collecting the insurance.
Police issued warrants.
The private transport team fled the lobby.
Judge Vale disappeared from his courthouse chambers.
Ryan remained somewhere inside the hospital.
Security footage showed him enter through the parking garage.
But no camera showed him leaving.
Dr. Collins looked toward the ceiling vents.
The labor ward entered full lockdown.
May you like
Then the fire alarm began ringing.
Smoke pushed beneath my door.
