Chapter 7 - The Poisoned ScalpelYou do not fight a billionaire matriarch by playing defense. By the time you build a wall, she has already bought the ground beneath it.
By noon, the executive conference room of The Phoenix Advocacy Group was a militarized intelligence bunker. I stood at the head of the glass table, projecting the Harlan corporate structure onto the smart-board.
"Beatrice doesn't make empty threats," I told my team of elite lawyers and cyber-investigators. "If she says she is coming after David's medical license and our daughter's adoption records, the machinery is already in motion. I want a complete audit of the state medical board and the family court judges. Find the leak."
At 2:00 P.M., the nightmare materialized.
My phone rang. It was David. His usually calm, soothing voice was tight with sheer panic.
"Olivia," David breathed. "The state medical board just walked into my clinic. They are accompanied by two federal agents. They seized my patient files and issued an emergency suspension of my medical license."
The air completely evacuated my lungs. "On what grounds, David?"
"They are claiming that I prescribed lethal doses of controlled narcotics to phantom patients and funneled the kickbacks into your foundation," David said, his voice shaking. "They brought fabricated digital prescriptions bearing my DEA number. Olivia, the documents look flawless. They are shutting down the clinic."
"Don't say another word to them. My defense team is already in the cars heading to your location," I commanded, my voice projecting crystal-clear, freezing authority. "David, listen to me. I will not let her touch you. Do you understand?"
"I know," he whispered.
I hung up the phone, a dark, apocalyptic rage igniting in the center of my chest. Beatrice had used her infinite wealth to forge a federal narcotics trail, framing the kindest man I knew just to force me to my knees.
"She used a proxy to plant those forged prescriptions in the state database," my lead cyber-forensics expert, Elias, announced, his fingers flying across his keyboard. "It’s heavily encrypted, routed through offshore servers in the Cayman Islands."
"I don't care how encrypted it is, Elias. Break it," I demanded. "Beatrice thinks she can use the medical system to destroy my family? She forgot that I am the woman who destroys corrupt medical systems for a living."
For the next twelve hours, my team operated on pure adrenaline. We tore through the digital footprints of the fabricated narcotics ring. We didn't just need to prove David was innocent; we needed to prove Beatrice orchestrated the frame-up.
By 3:00 A.M., Elias hit the jackpot.
"Got her," Elias breathed, his eyes wide with shock. "The Cayman routing numbers didn't just pay for the forged prescriptions, Olivia. I traced the master account backward. Beatrice Harlan didn't just inherit old money. She is the silent, majority shareholder of Apex Pharmaceuticals."
I froze. Apex Pharmaceuticals.
That was the company that had funded Dr. Evans—the corrupt doctor who had conspired with Jared to perform the unnecessary, traumatic surgeries on me years ago.
"Jared and Dr. Evans didn't act alone," I whispered, the pieces of the horrifying puzzle slamming together. "Beatrice funded the illegal medical trials. She paid Dr. Evans to use me as a guinea pig to fast-track her company's surgical patents. She wasn't ignoring Jared’s trial because she was ashamed of him. She was ignoring it to completely distance herself from the crimes she paid him to commit."
May you like
"She’s a monster," Elias said, staring at the screen.
"She is a dead woman walking," I corrected, pulling my tailored coat over my shoulders. "Print every single ledger. We aren't going to court. We are going to pay Beatrice a visit."
Related Stories
