Chapter 8 - The Emergency Room Lights
The harsh fluorescent lighting of St. Jude’s Emergency Room hummed a monotonous tune that grated on Evelyn’s frayed nerves. She sat on the edge of an examination table, her right ankle wrapped in a thick white bandage, the bright yellow sequins of her dress now stained with dark patches of mud and dried blood.
Dr. Hayes, a tired-looking man with salt-and-pepper hair, clicked his pen shut after reviewing her chart. “You’re lucky it’s just a bad sprain, Ms. Vance. No fractures. But you need to stay off that foot for at least a week.”
“I don’t have a week,” Evelyn said, her voice raspy. She looked around the sterile cubicle, half-expecting Marcus to walk through the swinging privacy curtain. “Is Officer Davis back there? He was supposed to be guarding me.”
The doctor frowned, adjusting his stethoscope. “The police officer who brought you in? He hasn’t checked back in. In fact, security said a man in a dark suit came to the desk twenty minutes ago asking for you, claiming to be your legal guardian.”
Evelyn’s blood ran cold. “That wasn’t my guardian. That was the man trying to ruin my family.”
Before Dr. Hayes could respond, the heavy metal doors at the end of the hallway swung open with a loud crash. Two county deputies rushed past the nurses' station, shouting commands into their shoulder radios.
Evelyn slid off the examination table, ignoring the sharp pain shooting up her sprained ankle, and limped toward the curtain to peek out into the hallway.
A few yards away, Richard was standing near the reception desk, talking animatedly to a hospital administrator while pointing a finger at an open laptop. Next to him stood Clara, her black mourning dress replaced by a sharp gray trench coat, looking entirely composed as she signed a series of rapid legal documents.
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As if sensing her gaze, Clara turned her head sharply toward Evelyn’s cubicle, locking eyes with her across the crowded emergency room. Clara didn’t look panicked anymore; instead, she smiled—a slow, triumphant curve of her lips that made Evelyn’s stomach churn.
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