Chapter 3 - The Name in the Hospital Records
Nathan noticed Leah staring at the folder.
“What is it?”
Leah looked away quickly.
“Nothing.”
But Margaret saw the change in her face.
“Leah?”
She swallowed.
“My father was treated at Morgan Memorial Hospital.”
Nathan’s expression sharpened.
“That hospital is part of the Sinclair Foundation’s new medical partnership.”
“I know.”
Leah’s voice was quieter now.
“My father died there last year.”
Margaret reached for her hand again.
“I’m so sorry.”
“He had a heart condition,” Leah said. “They said he needed a procedure, but the insurance approval took too long. By the time they scheduled it, there was nothing left to do.”
Nathan’s assistant stood frozen near the doorway.
Nathan looked at the folder in her hands.
Then back at Leah.
“What was your father’s name?”
“Daniel Morgan.”
The assistant’s face changed.
Nathan noticed immediately.
“What is it?”
She hesitated.
“Mr. Sinclair, Daniel Morgan’s name appeared in the preliminary audit.”
Leah stared at her.
“What audit?”
Nathan’s voice became cold.
“Explain.”
The assistant opened the folder.
“The Sinclair Foundation began reviewing Morgan Memorial’s emergency-care funding after several patients’ families filed complaints. We found delays in approvals, missing charitable funds, and unusually high administrative payments.”
Leah’s hands began shaking.
“My father’s treatment was delayed because of money?”
“We do not know yet,” the assistant said carefully. “But there are concerns.”
Nathan took the folder.
He read quickly.
Then stopped on one page.
His jaw tightened.
“What?” Leah asked.
Nathan looked up.
“The hospital’s former director approved several transfers from the emergency-care fund into private consulting accounts.”
Leah felt sick.
“People donated money to help patients.”
“Yes,” Nathan said.
“And someone stole it?”
“It appears so.”
Margaret’s face had gone pale.
“My husband established that fund,” she whispered.
The room became silent.
Nathan turned another page.
Then his expression changed again.
“Vanessa Brooks,” he said.
Leah looked at him.
“What about her?”
Nathan showed her the document.
Vanessa’s lifestyle brand had received nearly two million dollars in “public-awareness consulting fees” from the same hospital charity fund.
The money was supposedly used to promote children’s cardiac-care programs.
But there were no campaigns.
No records.
No patient support.
No evidence that the money ever helped a single family.
Vanessa had not merely humiliated Margaret at the gala.
She had been paid with money meant for patients like Leah’s father.
Leah stared at the page until the words blurred.
“She took money from sick people,” she whispered.
Nathan’s expression hardened.
May you like
“She took money from families who had nowhere else to turn.”
The socialite scandal had just become a criminal investigation.
