Chapter 5 - The Secret Hidden Beneath the Wedding Dress|
Claire Bennett was sitting upright when Ethan returned to her room.
She had changed out of the soaked wedding gown and into a hospital robe. Her short brown hair was still damp, and dark circles surrounded her gray eyes.
But something about her had changed.
The frightened woman from the river had been replaced by someone who was trying desperately to remember how to fight.
“I need to tell you something,” she said.
Ethan pulled the door closed.
“I'm listening.”
“Before the wedding, I made a copy of the original safety reports.”
His pulse quickened.
“Where are they?”
Claire looked down at her right knee.
“Somewhere Daniel wouldn't think to look.”
Ethan followed her gaze.
“The scar?”
She nodded.
He sat beside her.
“Claire, what are you telling me?”
“One year ago, when I came here with that injury, I wasn't running from an accident.”
Her hands tightened around the blanket.
“I was running from Daniel's security team.”
Ethan remembered the young woman on the examination table.
The blood on her jeans.
The bruises on her ribs.
The stubborn refusal to explain what had happened.
“I thought you'd been assaulted,” he said quietly.
“I had.”
“By whom?”
“People who worked for Daniel.”
Claire's voice remained steady, but Ethan could see the effort it required.
“I had discovered a folder containing altered clinical data. Daniel found out. I tried to leave the building with a copy, but two of his security men followed me.”
“What happened?”
“One of them pushed me against a loading dock. I fell onto a broken metal fixture. That's how I injured my knee.”
She touched the old scar.
“I managed to escape, but I knew they would search my apartment, my phone, everything.”
“So you hid the records?”
“Not the records themselves. A way to access them.”
Ethan waited.
Claire hesitated.
“Dr. Blake, when you stitched my knee, do you remember what I said?”
He looked at her.
“Don't waste sympathy on me, Doc. I won't know what to do with it.”
Her eyes filled.
“You remember.”
“I remember more than you think.”
She looked away.
“I wanted you to ask more questions. But I was afraid that if I told you the truth, they'd hurt you too.”
Ethan shook his head.
“You were injured and terrified. You didn't owe me an explanation.”
Claire swallowed.
“I kept a tiny waterproof capsule taped inside the lining of my jeans. It contained a memory card with the original files and a separate access key. I was going to give it to Dr. Reid.”
“What happened to it?”
“When Daniel's people caught up with me outside the hospital, they took the jeans from my belongings.”
“Then it's gone?”
“The card is. But I had already hidden the access key somewhere else.”
“Where?”
Claire looked directly at him.
“My wedding dress.”
Ethan frowned.
“You knew you might need it tonight?”
“I've been planning to escape for weeks.”
She closed her eyes.
“I kept one piece of evidence with me because I thought I'd have a chance to reach an investigator after the ceremony. I sewed a small pocket inside the lower lining of the dress.”
Ethan stood.
“Your dress is with patient belongings.”
“Please,” she whispered. “We need to get it before Daniel does.”
Ethan called Lauren.
Ten minutes later, the three of them stood inside a private examination room with the ruined gown spread across a table.
Lauren examined the fabric.
“Where's the pocket?”
Claire pointed toward the inside of the skirt.
“There.”
Ethan carefully lifted the lace.
The same delicate fabric that had nearly drowned Claire in the Chicago River now concealed a narrow line of stitching.
Lauren found a pair of sterile scissors.
With Claire's permission, she opened the seam.
Inside was a small plastic sleeve.
And inside that sleeve was a handwritten sequence of letters and numbers.
Ethan stared.
“A password?”
“Part of one.”
“What's the other part?”
Claire touched her knee again.
“Seven stitches.”
Ethan remembered the old injury.
“Seven.”
“That was the recovery phrase Dr. Reid and I chose. The scar would remind me if I ever forgot.”
Lauren lifted the paper.
“What exactly can this access?”
“An encrypted archive I created on an independent storage service. The original safety reports, communications with Dr. Reid, and records of the changes made afterward.”
Ethan felt a surge of hope.
“Then we have the evidence.”
Claire shook her head.
“Not yet. The archive is protected by another authentication step, and I don't have the device that generates it.”
“Where is it?”
Her expression darkened.
“Daniel's office.”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Lauren said, “We need law enforcement involved.”
Claire's face went pale.
“I tried reporting this once.”
“To whom?”
“A detective named Robert Mills.”
“And?”
“Two days later, Daniel showed me a photograph of our meeting.”
Ethan's jaw tightened.
“Someone told him.”
Claire nodded.
“I don't know whether Mills betrayed me or somebody was watching us. But I can't blindly trust another person.”
Lauren stepped closer.
“Then we find an investigator outside Daniel's influence. We document everything. And you don't have to face him yourself.”
Claire looked between them.
“You really believe me?”
Ethan answered without hesitation.
“I believe you're afraid for a reason. And I believe these records need to be examined.”
For the first time, Claire looked as though she might cry from relief rather than terror.
Then Ethan's phone vibrated.
A message from the hospital administrator.
Your privileges are suspended pending the conclusion of the Angelina Parker review. Effective immediately.
He stared at the words.
Lauren saw his face.
“What happened?”
He showed her.
“Daniel moved fast,” she whispered.
Ethan's expression hardened.
“Or the hospital decided I was a liability.”
Claire stood abruptly.
“This is because of me.”
“No.”
“Yes, it is. Daniel told me what he'd do to anyone who helped.”
Ethan placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Claire, I was already under review. Don't take responsibility for a decision you didn't make.”
His phone vibrated again.
Another message.
This one contained a photograph.
A young woman standing outside an apartment building.
Claire recognized her instantly.
“Emily.”
Her sister.
Beneath the image were six words.
Bring the evidence. Come alone. Midnight.
May you like
Claire stared at the screen.
Then she began to scream.
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