Chapter 6

Victor Hale found me three days later, in the hospital parking lot, as I was walking to my car.

“Mrs. Vale,” he said.

I stopped. The parking lot was half-empty, the fog rolling in off the mountain. Victor leaned against a black SUV, arms crossed, wearing a cashmere coat that probably cost more than my rent.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

“Don’t.” He smiled. It was a shark’s smile. “I know who you are. I know about the transplant file. I know Damian’s been paying your mortgage.”

My heart hammered. I kept my face blank. “What do you want?”

“I want you to leave.” He reached into his coat and pulled out an envelope. “Fifty thousand dollars. Sign a nondisclosure agreement. Disappear.”

I looked at the envelope. Fifty thousand dollars would pay off my mortgage and then some. It would let me breathe. It would let me walk away from this place and never look back.

“And if I don’t?”

Victor’s smile widened. “Then I’ll make sure the board finds out that Damian Locke knowingly employed the widow of a man his company killed. I’ll make sure Leo gets dragged into a scandal that will destroy his father. And I’ll make sure you never work in a hospital again.”

I thought about Elias. I thought about Leo. I thought about the way Damian’s fingers had loosened on my wrist when I said my name.

“No,” I said.

Victor’s face changed. “Excuse me?”

“I said no.” I stepped closer. “I’m not here for money. I’m here for the truth.”

“The truth.” He laughed. “You think Damian Locke is the villain? I forged those safety logs. I cut corners on the fire suppression system because I wanted the bonus. Damian didn’t know until after. He covered it up to protect his son.”

I stared at him. The world tilted again.

“You’re the one who killed my husband.”

Victor shrugged. “I ran the numbers. It was cheaper to pay the fines than upgrade the system. Your husband was collateral damage.”

I wanted to hit him. I wanted to scream. But I had learned something more valuable than money.

The real villain wasn’t Damian Locke. It was Victor Hale. And Damian had been covering for him.

That afternoon, Damian fired Victor for embezzling charity funds. The reason was unrelated-a discrepancy in the transplant foundation’s accounts-but the timing was not. Victor walked out of Locke Medical with a cardboard box and a promise in his eyes.

By midnight, the safety report was leaked to the Asheville Citizen-Times. Victor had framed Damian for the negligence. The story broke across every news site in North Carolina by morning.

Damian Locke was the one who needed saving now.