Chapter 7 - The Name on the Third Form
Sebastian showed the message to Diane without a word.
She read it twice. "Everett Lund. The surgical team lead."
"The one who told Boyd to keep quiet or step aside."
"And now he wants to talk." Diane set the phone on the desk. "Could be genuine. Could be Ronald sending a scout to find out what we have."
"Or both," Adeline said.
They looked at her.
"He can be genuinely scared and still be reporting back to Ronald," she said. "Those aren't mutually exclusive."
Diane nodded slowly. "We call him from a recorded line. We give him nothing. We only listen."
Sebastian dialed from the office landline. Two rings.
"Lund." The voice was older, a little breathless — a man who'd been sitting by the phone.
"This is Sebastian Cole. You texted me."
"Yes." A pause. "Is she there? Adeline?"
"She's here."
Another pause, longer. "I need you to understand something before I say this. I have spent eleven years telling myself I did nothing wrong. That I followed procedure. That the forms were signed and the paperwork was clean and my job was to operate, not to investigate." His voice was tight. "I'm telling you that because what comes next is going to sound like a man trying to save himself. I'm not. It's too late for that."
"Then say it," Adeline said.
A breath. "The third consent form — the procedure Ronald told you was an appendectomy — it wasn't signed by Ronald."
The room went dead still.
"His signature is on forms one and two," Lund went on. "I always assumed he signed the third too. I never looked closely. But last night, after I saw the wedding announcement and realized Boyd had surfaced, I pulled my own copies." A pause. "The signature on form three is different. The handwriting is different. The pressure of the pen is different. And the printed name underneath it is not Ronald Ashford."
Sebastian leaned in. "Whose name is it?"
"Eleanor Cole," Lund said. "Your stepmother."
The silence after that was total.
Adeline turned slowly to look at Sebastian. His face had gone the color of old paper.
"Nell's legal name," he said, "is Eleanor."
"I know," Lund said quietly. "I looked it up this morning."
Diane was already writing.
Sebastian stood and walked to the window, his back to the room.
"She was on the hospital foundation board," Adeline said, her voice very controlled. "She told us that herself. Last night."
"She was more than on the board," Lund said. "During those years she was the board's liaison to the surgical wing. She had access. She had authority. And apparently—" another breath— "she had a reason."
"What reason?" Sebastian asked, still not turning.
"I don't know. I only know what the form shows." Lund paused. "But you should ask her yourself. Because she called me forty minutes ago and told me not to contact you."
Sebastian turned around. "She called you."
"Twenty minutes before I called you. She said whatever Boyd told you was incomplete. That the situation was more complicated than it looked. That if I talked to you without the full picture, I'd be doing Adeline more harm than good." A pause. "She didn't sound like a woman covering something up, Mr. Cole. She sounded like a woman who was afraid of what you'd do when you found out."
"Afraid of what I'd do," Sebastian repeated.
"Yes."
Sebastian looked at Adeline. Something had shifted in his face — not doubt, exactly. A new kind of weight.
"Mr. Cole," Lund said. "I don't know what your stepmother's involvement means. I only know her name is on that form, and she knew about the third surgery, and she said nothing to you last night when she had every chance." A pause. "What you do with that is up to you."
Sebastian ended the call. The three of them sat with it.
Then Diane said, carefully: "Two possibilities. Either Nell was in on it with Ronald from the beginning. Or she signed that form for a reason she still hasn't told you — and she's been carrying it ever since."
"She told us to wait," Adeline said slowly. "Last night. Don't confront Ronald yet. She'd send everything to your attorney." She paused. "She was trying to control the timing."
"To protect herself," Sebastian said.
"Or to protect you." Adeline looked at him. "She said she hired an investigator when she realized you were serious about me. She found the agency records." A pause. "What if she found something else, too? Something she didn't tell us?"
Sebastian picked up his phone and called Nell. This time she answered.
"Sebastian." Careful. Quiet.
"Eleanor," he said. He never called her that. "Tell me about the third consent form."
May you like
A very long silence. Then: "Come to the house. Both of you. There are things I should have told you a long time ago, and I would rather say them to your face than into a phone."
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