Chapter 6 - The Missing Hospital Page
Grant opened the hospital folder.
Most records looked ordinary.
Lab results.
Discharge instructions.
Medication lists.
Then Tessa pointed.
“Page forty-three is missing.”
Grant frowned.
“What?”
The scanned packet jumped from page forty-two to forty-four.
Emma had circled the gap before saving it.
Grant called the hospital.
He requested the complete records through legal channels.
Hours later, his attorney called.
“There is a page forty-three.”
Grant’s pulse jumped.
“What is it?”
“A medication administration note.”
Grant went silent.
“Which medication?”
The attorney hesitated.
“It records a dose that does not appear elsewhere in the chart.”
Grant stared at Tessa.
“Who ordered it?”
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“The electronic signature belongs to a physician who wasn’t on Emma’s care team.”
Grant felt cold.
The doctor’s name meant nothing to him.
But Tessa recognized it.
“Dr. Warren Hale.”
Grant looked at her.
“You know him?”
“No.”
“Then why do you know the name?”
Tessa pointed toward the photos from the private investigator.
The man standing outside Emma’s OB-GYN office.
Grant looked closer.
Same face.
Older than the surveillance photo.
But unmistakable.
Dr. Warren Hale.
The private investigator had not been alone.
Vivienne had been meeting a doctor connected to Emma’s care.
Grant called his attorney again.
“Find Hale.”
Tessa whispered:
“Grant…”
He looked at her.
“You think Vivienne killed Emma.”
“I think Emma was afraid of something.”
“That’s not the same.”
“No.”
Tessa’s eyes filled.
“And I don’t want you deciding before we have proof.”
Grant nodded.
She was right.
Grief wanted certainty.
Truth required evidence.
The hospital launched an internal review.
Grant handed everything to investigators.
Then he returned home.
Noah was asleep upstairs.
Grant stood beneath the living-room security camera.
The same camera that had caught Vivienne attacking him.
He wondered how many truths had been sitting silently around him for years.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
“Grant Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“This is Warren Hale.”
Grant stopped breathing.
Hale continued.
“I heard you’re asking questions.”
Grant’s voice hardened.
“You knew Emma.”
Silence.
Then:
“I knew Vivienne.”
Grant closed his eyes.
“Meet me.”
“No.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
Hale’s voice dropped.
“Not on the phone.”
“Why?”
Another pause.
May you like
“Because if Vivienne realizes I’m talking, she’ll destroy the only thing that proves what she asked me to do.”
👉 The doctor tied to Emma’s missing hospital record was alive—and he claimed Vivienne had personally asked him for something he had hidden ever since.
