Chapter 7: The Voice on the Recording
“Stop the infusion,” Dr.
Shaw ordered.
Lena closed the line while I held Ethan’s hand.
Walter stood on the other side of the bed, repeating his name.
“Ethan, squeeze my fingers,” I said.
His hand remained still.
Dr.
Shaw adjusted his oxygen and called for medication.
The monitor continued its sharp warning until Ethan finally drew a deeper breath.
“Grandpa?” he whispered.
“I’m here.”
His eyes moved toward Walter.
“Both of you?”
Walter bent over the rail.
“Both of us.”
Dr.
Shaw waited until Ethan’s pressure steadied.
“That was a severe reaction,” she said.
“We can adjust the dose, but I will not continue without Ethan’s agreement.”
Ethan swallowed.
“Will it still have a chance to work?”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t let Dr.
Pike be the last person who made a decision for me.”
A hospital investigator entered with Ms.
Doyle and a young laboratory technician.
The technician clutched a flash drive.
“My name is Aaron Bell.
Dr.
Pike told me to overwrite Ethan’s original result.”
Dr.
Shaw’s face tightened.
“Did you?”
“I changed the visible status to inconclusive, but I saved the original file.”
“Why wait until now?” I asked.
Aaron looked at Ethan.
“Because I was afraid of losing my job.
Then I heard the recording.”
Walter set his phone on the table.
Dr.
Pike’s voice filled the room.
“Ethan remains here.
His bills disappear.
Mr.
Hayes leaves, Dr.
Shaw withdraws, and Nurse Ortiz admits she was mistaken.”
Aaron wiped his eyes.
“He made the same kind of offer to me.”
The investigator accepted the drive.
“Does it contain the audit history?”
“Every change.
His login, the time, and the deleted interpretation.”
The door opened again.
Dr.
Pike stood there with an attorney.
“You are discussing confidential research,” he said.
“Mr.
Bell signed a nondisclosure agreement.”
The investigator stepped forward.
“Dr.
Pike, your access has been suspended.”
“Administrative suspension is not a finding of wrongdoing.”
Dr.
Pike looked at Aaron.
“If you hand over that drive, no hospital will hire you again.”
Aaron’s fingers tightened around it.
For a moment, I thought he might take it back.
Ethan lifted his head from the pillow.
“He took eight months from me,” he said.
“How many months did he take from someone else?”
Aaron placed the drive in the investigator’s palm.
“No more,” he said.
Dr.
Pike pointed at Walter.
“This man engineered all of this.
He bought the trip, recruited Shaw, and turned a sick child into a weapon against me.”
Walter moved beside Ethan.
“I bought a ticket,” he said.
“You buried a test.”
The investigator opened the door.
“Dr.
Pike, you need to leave.”
He looked at me one final time.
“When this treatment fails, remember that I tried to protect you from yourselves.”
Ethan answered before I could.
“If it fails, at least the choice will be mine.”
Dr.
Pike walked out with his attorney.
This time, nobody followed him.
Three weeks later, Dr.
Shaw wheeled a monitor beside Ethan’s bed.
He had tolerated the reduced doses, but his face was pale and his hands still shook.
“Tell us the truth,” I said.
“I will.”
She placed the new scan beside the old one.
“The largest tumor has shrunk by thirty-one percent.”
Walter covered his mouth.
I sat down before my legs could betray me.
Ethan stared at the image.
“Does that mean it’s working?”
“It means we continue.”
He reached for my hand, then Walter’s.
Tears ran down his face without shame.
“I thought I’d never hear a doctor say that.”
Walter pressed Ethan’s hand against his forehead.
“I thought I’d never hear you call me family.”
Ethan managed a weak smile.
“Don’t get greedy.”
Dr.
Shaw smiled too, but then she touched another shadow on the scan.
“There is one more thing we need to discuss.”
My relief disappeared.
“What is it?”
She enlarged the image.
“This spot should not be here.”
