Chapter 6 - Ronald Makes His Move
Ronald Ashford did not wait.
By noon, Sebastian's attorney — a sharp, silver-haired woman named Diane Prewitt — called to say Ronald had already hired counsel and filed a preemptive complaint with the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, claiming Adeline had improperly accessed confidential patient records while working as a nurse at the hospital.
"It's a pressure play," Diane said. "It's designed to make her look unstable and self-serving before any of our documentation gets out. He's trying to write the story first."
Sebastian stood at the window of the suite. Adeline sat at the desk, listening.
"Can he make it stick?" Sebastian asked.
"Not with what we have. But it makes noise. It gives friendly reporters something to print while we're still building the case." A pause. "He also called your stepmother this morning. I don't know what was said, but Nell's assistant contacted my office an hour ago to say she's temporarily unavailable."
Sebastian's face didn't change. "Get me Dr. Boyd this afternoon."
"Already booked. Two o'clock, my office."
He hung up and looked at Adeline. "He moved fast."
"He's been getting ready for this for years," she said. "He always knew there was a chance I'd talk. He just didn't think I'd ever have anyone who'd listen." No bitterness — just clarity. "That's why he let me get close to you. He thought if I married into your family, he'd have more control over what happened. Not less."
"He thought he could use the marriage the same way he used the adoption."
"Yes." She stood. "We can't let him get to Nell."
"I know."
He called Nell directly. Four rings, then voicemail. He left a short message: "Nell. Whatever Ronald said to you this morning, call me before you decide anything. Please."
Diane Prewitt's office was on the fourteenth floor of a building on State Street. Dr. Nathaniel Boyd was already there when they arrived — a trim man in his sixties, careful eyes, a manila folder squared up on the table in front of him.
He stood when Adeline walked in. "I wasn't sure you'd come."
"I wasn't sure either," she said. "But here we are."
They sat. Diane opened a recording app on her laptop and stated the date and time. For the next ninety minutes, Dr. Boyd walked through all of it — the pre-op files, the consent forms, his handwritten notes, the conversation with the team lead before the second procedure. And the third surgery, the one Adeline had been told was an appendectomy, and what the actual operative report showed.
When he finished, the room was silent.
Diane looked at her notes. "Dr. Boyd. In your professional opinion, were these procedures performed in the medical interest of the patient?"
"No." No hesitation. "They were performed in the interest of a third party, with the patient's welfare treated as a distant second. In any ethical framework I know of, that is a fundamental breach of the duty of care."
"And the consent forms?"
"Signed by Ronald Ashford as legal guardian. No independent advocate appointed. No second opinion sought. Nobody in that entire process was acting solely for Adeline." He looked straight at her. "You should have had someone in your corner. You didn't. And the people who were supposed to protect you made sure of that on purpose."
Adeline kept her hands folded on the table and didn't look away from him. "Thank you," she said quietly. "For keeping the records."
"I should have done more." He said it simply. "I know that."
Diane closed her laptop. "I'll have a formal statement ready for your signature by end of day tomorrow. Until then, please don't discuss this with anyone outside this room."
He nodded and stood. At the door, he paused.
"One more thing. The agency Ronald used — Romanian authorities shut it down in 2009. But before it closed, it processed forty-one adoptions using the same compatibility-matching model." He looked at Diane. "Adeline wasn't the only child placed this way."
He left.
Diane looked at Sebastian, then at Adeline. "That changes the scope."
"I know," Sebastian said.
His phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number — but the area code was Sedona, Arizona.
May you like
"This is Everett Lund. I hear Nathaniel Boyd is talking. Before you use his testimony, there's something about the third surgery you need to know. Something Boyd doesn't know he has in those records. Call me."
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