The Price of Walking Away
Chapter 07 - The Price of Walking Away
Mason traced Nora’s call to the laboratory parking structure. He and Emily found her locked inside a records room, frightened but unharmed. Nora said a supervisor had taken her phone and ordered her to sign a statement admitting she had mishandled the Blackwood samples. She refused, waited until he left, and used an office phone to call Emily.
Police arrived and opened the room. The supervisor claimed Nora had locked herself in, but security footage showed him carrying away a cooler used for biological samples. He was detained for questioning.
Nora explained that she had noticed a mismatch in the intake temperature logs. Emily’s sample had been collected at 9:12 a.m., yet the tube processed under her name was recorded at room temperature before the courier even reached the hospital. Nora copied the audit trail before it could be erased.
The hospital’s legal team immediately tried to silence her with confidentiality warnings. Eleanor’s attorney, Henry Cole, stepped in and arranged protection for both Nora and the records.
Emily agreed to a second test only under strict conditions. Samples would be collected in the same room, witnessed by a judge, and processed simultaneously by two university laboratories. Thomas also volunteered a sample to establish an additional family link.
Julian called the procedure theatrical. Then he offered Emily five million dollars to sign an agreement stating she had fabricated her claim.
They met in a conference room with attorneys present.
“You could take care of Anna for life,” Julian said. “No more serving tables. No more strangers calling you a liar.”
Emily pushed the agreement back. “You keep assuming I came for money because money is the only reason you understand.”
His calm expression cracked. “You have no idea what this family does to people who do not belong.”
“Maybe you’re afraid I do belong.”
Outside the room, Mason received footage from the delivery van in the parking garage. The camera had recorded Julian paying the courier and giving instructions to switch the samples. The courier’s face and license plate were visible.
Police obtained a warrant, but Julian’s office was empty when they arrived. His computer had been wiped, and several company accounts had transferred funds overseas.
The second DNA results were due the next morning.
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At midnight, Eleanor suffered chest pain during the emergency board meeting. As paramedics carried her out, Julian appeared by video and demanded that the directors vote to remove her immediately.
Emily watched the broadcast from the hospital waiting room and realized the DNA test was no longer only about her past. It might decide who controlled the future before Eleanor woke up.
