By morning, specialists were no longer treating the two masses as unrelated discoveries.<\/p>\n
The lesion in Sophie's brain explained too many things.<\/p>\n
Headaches.<\/p>\n
Morning vomiting.<\/p>\n
Visual problems.<\/p>\n
Possibly even the unusually early physical development Claire had questioned months earlier.<\/p>\n
That last connection haunted her.<\/p>\n
Six months ago she'd done exactly what a responsible parent was supposed to do. She had taken Sophie to a pediatrician. The doctor had examined her and asked questions about nausea and headaches.<\/p>\n
Then he'd reassured Claire.<\/p>\n
Early development happened.<\/p>\n
Some children matured sooner.<\/p>\n
Claire had wanted that answer.<\/p>\n
So she'd taken Sophie home.<\/p>\n
Now Dr. Shah showed them new images of the ovarian mass.<\/p>\n
It didn't look exactly like a simple spread from the brain.<\/p>\n
Claire stared at her.<\/p>\n
"You're saying she might have two separate tumors?"<\/p>\n
"It remains one possibility."<\/p>\n
Sophie had been coloring a dragon. She lowered her crayon.<\/p>\n
"Can everyone quit calling them tumors?"<\/p>\n
The adults turned.<\/p>\n
"They're in my body, so I should name them."<\/p>\n
Daniel nodded.<\/p>\n
"Fair."<\/p>\n
Sophie pointed toward her head.<\/p>\n
"That one is Kevin."<\/p>\n
Claire almost laughed.<\/p>\n
"Why Kevin?"<\/p>\n
"There's a Kevin at school who gives me headaches."<\/p>\n
Daniel turned away, shoulders shaking.<\/p>\n
"And the other?"<\/p>\n
Sophie considered the question seriously.<\/p>\n
"Gertrude."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"It sounds like something that should leave."<\/p>\n
The humor didn't survive the afternoon.<\/p>\n
The working diagnosis became more specific. The intracranial mass strongly resembled a malignant germ-cell tumor capable of producing hormones. The ovarian growth also appeared consistent with a germ-cell tumor, though whether it represented the same disease remained uncertain.<\/p>\n
Sophie looked at Dr. Shah.<\/p>\n
"Is Kevin cancer?"<\/p>\n
The doctor gave her the truth.<\/p>\n
They believed it was.<\/p>\n
Sophie's face changed.<\/p>\n
"Am I going to die?"<\/p>\n
Claire held her hand.<\/p>\n
Dr. Shah explained that these tumors could respond very well to treatment. More information was still needed, but there were legitimate reasons for hope.<\/p>\n
Sophie listened quietly.<\/p>\n
Then asked whether cancer meant she'd lose the twelve dollars she'd already paid for the class trip.<\/p>\n
Daniel promised to defend her investment.<\/p>\n
Later Sophie asked Claire a different question.<\/p>\n
"What if Daniel leaves?"<\/p>\n
Claire stared at her.<\/p>\n
"Why would he?"<\/p>\n
"Because Eric made everyone think Dad did something."<\/p>\n
"He didn't."<\/p>\n
"But what if other people think he did?"<\/p>\n
Claire explained that people could believe terrible things that weren't true.<\/p>\n
Sophie picked at the blanket.<\/p>\n
"Eric said Daniel isn't my real dad."<\/p>\n
Claire suppressed her anger.<\/p>\n
"Biology tells you who you're genetically related to. Parenting is bigger than one fact."<\/p>\n
"Daniel stayed."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Even when I threw up on him at the fair."<\/p>\n
Claire smiled.<\/p>\n
"Even then."<\/p>\n
Sophie asked for him.<\/p>\n
Daniel entered moments later.<\/p>\n
She held out her arms.<\/p>\n
"I still want you to be my dad."<\/p>\n
Daniel stopped.<\/p>\n
Then crossed the room and hugged her.<\/p>\n
"Nothing changes that."<\/p>\n
She whispered something Claire couldn't hear.<\/p>\n
Daniel's face folded.<\/p>\n
Much later, he told Claire what she'd asked.<\/p>\n
Would he still be her father if Kevin ate part of her brain?<\/p>\n
His answer had been immediate.<\/p>\n
Especially then.<\/p>\n
The following morning surgeons removed Gertrude.<\/p>\n
Three hours later Sophie woke, groggy and irritable.<\/p>\n
"Gertrude?"<\/p>\n
"Gone," Daniel told her.<\/p>\n
"Good."<\/p>\n
She went back to sleep.<\/p>\n
That evening there was a knock.<\/p>\n
A woman displayed identification.<\/p>\n
"Detective Amanda Reeves."<\/p>\n
Daniel went pale.<\/p>\n
The detective noticed.<\/p>\n
"This isn't about you, Mr. Morgan."<\/p>\n
Eric lowered his eyes.<\/p>\n
Claire stood.<\/p>\n
"Then why are police here?"<\/p>\n
Detective Reeves said something was wrong with Sophie's medical history.<\/p>\n
Had Sophie participated in clinical research?<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
Genetic screening programs?<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
Experimental treatment?<\/p>\n
Absolutely not.<\/p>\n
Had she ever been treated at St. Matthew's Pediatric Center?<\/p>\n
Claire started to say no.<\/p>\n
Daniel remembered first.<\/p>\n
"The bike accident."<\/p>\n
Three years earlier Sophie had crashed her bicycle while visiting Eric. She'd been taken to St. Matthew's for examination and discharged later.<\/p>\n
"Was blood taken?" Reeves asked.<\/p>\n
Claire thought so.<\/p>\n
The detective wrote something down.<\/p>\n
"Why does that matter?"<\/p>\n
Because the hospital claimed Sophie Morgan had never been a patient there.<\/p>\n
Claire stared at her.<\/p>\n
"That's impossible."<\/p>\n
Daniel remembered collecting her afterward.<\/p>\n
Then came the stranger discovery.<\/p>\n
Someone had accessed Sophie's current hospital chart eleven minutes after her positive hCG result entered the system.<\/p>\n
The credentials belonged to a physician associated with St. Matthew's.<\/p>\n
"Who?"<\/p>\n
"Patrick Warren."<\/p>\n
Claire felt immediate recognition.<\/p>\n
"That's her pediatrician."<\/p>\n
Detective Reeves stopped writing.<\/p>\n
"Current pediatrician?"<\/p>\n
"She saw him six months ago."<\/p>\n
Reeves pulled out her phone.<\/p>\n
Then she delivered a sentence that changed the entire investigation.<\/p>\n
Patrick Warren had died fourteen months earlier.<\/p>\n
Claire refused to believe it until Reeves showed her a photograph.<\/p>\n
The dead physician was elderly, gray-haired, wearing narrow glasses.<\/p>\n
Claire had never seen him.<\/p>\n
"That's not the doctor who examined Sophie."<\/p>\n
Daniel confirmed it.<\/p>\n
Yet the man Claire had visited six months earlier had introduced himself as Dr. Patrick Warren.<\/p>\n
He had examined Sophie.<\/p>\n
He'd asked about headaches.<\/p>\n
About nausea.<\/p>\n
He'd checked her eyes.<\/p>\n
He'd taken blood.<\/p>\n
Then he'd dismissed Sophie's early development as an ordinary variation.<\/p>\n
No MRI.<\/p>\n
No referral.<\/p>\n
No follow-up.<\/p>\n
Daniel's voice dropped.<\/p>\n
"He knew."<\/p>\n
Detective Reeves couldn't confirm that.<\/p>\n
But Claire couldn't escape the possibility.<\/p>\n
Someone using a dead doctor's identity had examined her daughter while Sophie already showed symptoms of a brain tumor.<\/p>\n
By the next morning the situation became stranger.<\/p>\n
Westbrook Children's Clinic\u2014the pediatric practice Claire remembered visiting\u2014didn't officially exist.<\/p>\n
She gave Reeves the address.<\/p>\n
Property records showed a dental office.<\/p>\n
Claire recognized the building perfectly.<\/p>\n
The sign had been different.<\/p>\n
Blue waiting chairs.<\/p>\n
Painted fish.<\/p>\n
Cartoons playing.<\/p>\n
A bead maze.<\/p>\n
A receptionist behind glass.<\/p>\n
Then Reeves asked something simple.<\/p>\n
"Do you remember any other patients?"<\/p>\n
Claire searched her memory.<\/p>\n
She couldn't.<\/p>\n
No other children.<\/p>\n
No other parents.<\/p>\n
She had given that clinic everything.<\/p>\n
Insurance information.<\/p>\n
Identification.<\/p>\n
Their address.<\/p>\n
Emergency contacts.<\/p>\n
Medical history.<\/p>\n
Family history.<\/p>\n
She had handed strangers a map of Sophie's life.<\/p>\n
Later Detective Reeves returned with Special Agent Marcus Bell of the FBI.<\/p>\n
The case now potentially involved fraudulent medical credentials, identity theft, unlawful access to medical records, interstate activity, and other victims.<\/p>\n
Bell showed them a photograph.<\/p>\n
The building now carried the sign Claire remembered.<\/p>\n
WESTBROOK CHILDREN'S CLINIC.<\/p>\n
Investigators believed the fake clinic had operated for only eleven weeks before disappearing.<\/p>\n
Fourteen former pediatric patients had already been identified.<\/p>\n
"Why?" Claire asked. "Why create an entire fake clinic?"<\/p>\n
Bell didn't yet know.<\/p>\n
Then he mentioned a company connected to the clinic.<\/p>\n
NorthStar Medical Logistics.<\/p>\n
Eric stopped moving.<\/p>\n
Claire saw it immediately.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
Eric looked down.<\/p>\n
"I used to work there."<\/p>\n
By morning, specialists were no longer treating the two masses as unrelated discoveries. The lesion in Sophie's brain explained too many things. Headaches. Morning vomiting. Visual problems. Possibly even the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30913,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30851\/revisions\/30913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}