Chapter 3 - The Doctor’s Confession
Leo froze, the cold plastic tray slipping from his numb fingers and clattering loudly against the stainless-steel grating of the floor. He slowly turned around, shielding his eyes from the blinding glare of the flashlight being held by Dr. Helen Vance. She stood in the doorway of the auxiliary pharmacy, her white lab coat unbuttoned, revealing the dark blue scrubs underneath. Her face was pale, devoid of the cold professional armor she had worn upstairs. Instead, her eyes carried an expression of profound exhaustion and unmistakable fear.
"I'm looking for what you're too afraid to give my sister," Leo said, his voice trembling but defiant as he stood his ground beside the refrigeration unit. "You have the serum in here. I saw the manifest on your tablet when you left it on the nurse's station cart this afternoon. You marked Maya's file as terminal, but you requested three doses of Vector-9 yesterday."
Helen lowered the flashlight, letting the beam wash over the concrete floor between them. She let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through her brown hair, completely undoing the clip and letting the strands fall loosely around her shoulders.
"Vector-9 isn't an approved treatment, Leo," Helen whispered, taking a slow step into the cold room. "It's an experimental nanotherapy developed by a private biotech firm. It has never been tested on a pediatric patient with Maya's specific genetic markers."
"And letting her die in that room without it is better?" Leo demanded, his voice cracking. "Why did you request it if you weren't going to use it? Who is it actually for?"
Helen looked over her shoulder, ensuring the hallway outside was completely empty before stepping closer to the boy. She lowered her voice to a tense, urgent whisper.
"The hospital board didn't just restrict access; they ordered me to destroy the remaining vials," Helen confessed, her hands shaking slightly. "The pharmaceutical company running the trial discovered a fatal flaw in the delivery mechanism. It causes a catastrophic drop in blood pressure within forty-eight hours. They pulled the plug on the trial to cover up three patient deaths at another facility."
Leo stared at her, processing the brutal reality of her words. "So you were going to throw it away."
"I was ordered to," Helen corrected firmly. "Using it on Maya isn't a cure. It's a gamble with zero odds. If she dies from the side effects, the hospital will blame me for administering unauthorized substances, and I'll lose my medical license forever. If I don't use it, she dies of the infection anyway."
"Then give it to me," Leo pleaded, stepping forward and extending his hand. "Let me make the choice. You don't have to administer it. Just hand me the case, and I'll take full responsibility."
Helen looked at the desperate boy, her professional ethics warring violently against her human compassion. She reached into her coat pocket, pulled out a small silver metallic case, and held it tightly in her grip.
May you like
"If I give you this, there's no turning back for either of us," Helen warned, her eyes locking onto his. "And someone else in this hospital already knows we're down here."
---
