Someone Wanted Her Moved
Chapter 04 - Someone Wanted Her Moved
Ethan tore the transfer form from the clipboard.
“I did not sign this.”
The nurse stepped back. “Sir, I only received the order.”
“From whom?”
“The administrative office.”
Marcus took the form and examined the authorization number.
“Do not move her,” he said.
The nurse looked offended. “You don’t have authority here.”
“No,” Marcus replied. “But the two officers coming down that hallway do.”
Within minutes, hospital security sealed the floor.
Someone had entered Ethan’s information into the hospital system and requested Claire’s transfer to a rehabilitation facility nearly forty miles away.
That facility had no trauma unit.
No cardiac monitoring.
And no record of expecting Claire.
“They weren’t transferring me,” Claire said.
Ethan returned to her bedside.
“Don’t think like that.”
“What else should I think?”
His hand reached for hers, but she pulled away before he could touch her.
Not because she believed he had signed the order.
Because fear had entered every part of their marriage.
She no longer knew which questions were safe to ask or which answers would destroy them.
Marcus received a call from the officer at their house.
The thief had ignored jewelry, cash and electronics. Claire’s laptop was gone, along with a paper notebook hidden inside a kitchen drawer.
The security system had been disabled using Ethan’s personal code.
Only four people knew it.
Ethan.
Claire.
Vivian.
And Lauren.
As if summoned by her name, Lauren Bennett appeared outside the hospital room twenty minutes later.
She was thirty-three, elegant and perfectly composed, wearing a navy dress and carrying white roses.
The officers stopped her at the door.
“What is going on?” Lauren asked.
Ethan stepped into the hallway.
“Where were you last night?”
Her expression shifted from concern to disbelief.
“Are you seriously asking me that while Claire is lying in there?”
“Answer me.”
“I was at the foundation dinner. Two hundred people saw me.”
“Your badge was photographed inside the garage where Claire’s brakes were cut.”
“My badge was stolen last month.”
“You never reported it.”
“I did report it.”
“To whom?”
Lauren’s gaze moved past Ethan and settled on Vivian.
“To Mother.”
Vivian’s face remained composed.
But Lauren smiled slightly.
May you like
It was not the smile of an innocent woman asking for help.
It was the smile of someone who had just moved the blame exactly where she wanted it.
