Chapter 5

Damian’s home office was dark except for the green-shaded lamp on his desk. The house was quiet. Leo was asleep. I had been working there for nine nights, and I had not told Damian what I knew. I had nursed his son. I had watched Leo breathe. I had heard Elias’s heart beating through the stethoscope I was no longer supposed to own.

Tonight, I was done pretending.

Damian was at his desk, reading something on his laptop. He looked up when I walked in. He knew. I could see it in the way his shoulders tightened, the way his hand stilled on the keyboard.

“You should be with Leo,” he said.

“He’s asleep.” I walked to the desk and dropped the manila folder in front of him. It landed with a slap that echoed off the walnut. “I found this in your safe.”

He looked at the folder. He didn’t touch it. “You went through my safe.”

“I went through your lies.” I flipped the folder open. The transplant page faced him. Recipient: Locke, Leo. Donor: Vale, Elias. “Your son has my husband’s heart.”

Damian’s hand shot out and closed around my wrist. His grip was tight, his skin cold. His gray eyes were wide-not angry. Afraid.

“Who are you?” he said.

“Corinne Vale.” I jerked my wrist once. He held. “Elias’s wife. The widow whose mortgage you’ve been paying for twelve months.”

His fingers loosened. Then dropped.

I leaned forward, both hands flat on his desk. “You knew. You knew whose heart Leo had, and you paid me to stay quiet.”

“I didn’t-” He stopped. Swallowed. His voice came out cracked. “I didn’t pay you to stay quiet. I paid you because I couldn’t face you.”

“You couldn’t face me?” I laughed, and it sounded like broken glass. “My husband burned to death in your warehouse. His heart beat in your son’s chest, and you buried the safety report.”

“Leo was dying.” His voice broke. “The transplant was a miracle. I couldn’t-if the scandal broke, if the hospital lost its funding, if the transplant program shut down-”

“So my husband’s death was a line item.”

“No.” He stood up. His hands were shaking. “I didn’t know about the safety failures until after. I swear to you. By the time I found out, Leo was already recovering. I couldn’t take that away from him. I couldn’t take his future.”

I looked at the crayon drawing on the desk beside the folder. The red heart. E.V.

“You could have told me,” I said. “You could have come to me as a man, not a coward.”

“I know.” His voice was barely a whisper. “I know.”

“I have the safety report.” I straightened. “I have Victor Hale’s forged inspection logs. I have your letters. I can destroy you, and I can destroy this hospital.”

Damian looked at me. His face was stripped of control, the mask gone. “What do you want?”

“I want you to admit what happened. Publicly. I want the warehouse workers to know their lives were worth more than your quarterly earnings.”

“I can’t.” He shook his head. “Leo. The board. If I resign, if this goes public, the hospital loses its accreditation. Leo loses his team. He loses everything.”

“And my husband lost his life.”

The silence between us was thick enough to choke on. Damian looked at the crayon drawing. He looked at the transplant file. Then he looked at me.

“Give me time,” he said. “Please.”

“You’ve had fourteen months.”

I walked out of his office and into the cold mountain night. I didn’t look back.