Chapter 3 - Operating Under Suspicion
The private consultation room off the ICU was small,
sterile,
and smelled faintly of industrial disinfectant and stale lemon cleaner.
Mia sat on the edge of the faux-leather chair,
her hands clutching her pregnant belly protectively as if she expected me to lunge across the table and rip the unborn child from her womb.
I leaned against the locked door,
blocking any exit,
my arms crossed tightly over my lab coat.
'Start talking,
' I said,
my voice dangerously quiet,
carrying the chilling weight of a predator cornering its prey.
Mia swallowed hard,
her lower lip trembling as she looked up at me with wide,
terrified eyes.
'My name is Mia Vance.
.
.
no,
Mia Brooks,
' she stammered,
correcting herself nervously.
'Ethan told me.
.
.
he told me you two were separated.
He said the divorce papers were already filed,
that you were just living under the same roof temporarily for the sake of your professional reputation at the hospital.
' A harsh,
humorless laugh escaped my throat,
slicing through the tense silence of the tiny room like a rusty razor blade.
'Separated?' I repeated,
stepping closer until I towered over her seated frame.
'We shared a bed less than twelve hours ago.
He cooked me soup yesterday afternoon.
He texted me before his car went off the road,
telling me he loved me.
' Mia flinched as if I had struck her across the face,
her hands tightening around her swollen stomach.
'He.
.
.
he told me you were cold,
that you cared more about your patients than your marriage,
' she whispered,
tears spilling over her eyelashes once again.
'He said he was trapped in a loveless marriage with a woman who didn't even notice when he slipped away.
He bought a house for us in the suburbs three months ago.
He promised we would be a real family once the divorce was finalized.
' The words hit me with wave after wave of nauseating vertigo.
A house in the suburbs.
Three months ago.
That was right around the time Ethan claimed he had to attend a mandatory regional management seminar in Milwaukee for an entire weekend.
Instead of Milwaukee,
he had been setting up a nest with this terrified,
naive twenty-six-year-old girl.
I stared at her,
seeing not just a homewrecking mistress,
but another victim of the elaborate,
sociopathic web of lies that my husband had woven with effortless charm.
'How long?' I demanded,
my fingernails digging into my palms through the fabric of my pockets.
'How long have you been sleeping with my husband?' Mia dropped her gaze to the floor,
her voice dropping to a barely audible murmur.
'Two years,
' she confessed,
the confession hanging in the suffocating air like a foul odor.
'We met at a charity gala downtown.
He introduced himself as an unmarried bachelor.
I didn't find out about you until six months ago,
when I was already pregnant.
When I tried to break it off,
he begged me to stay,
swearing he would leave you the moment the fiscal quarter ended.
' I closed my eyes for a single heartbeat,
feeling the crushing weight of betrayal press down on my chest until my ribs ached.
Two years.
That meant half our recent marriage had been a complete fabrication,
a theatrical performance staged by a man with a smiling mask and a black,
rotting core.
But before I could press her for the address of this suburban house or the financial accounts funding his double life,
the intercom on the wall crackled to life with a frantic page.
'Dr.
Bennett! Code blue in ICU room four! Patient Ethan Bennett is crashing again!' My eyes snapped open,
all personal agony instantly incinerated by the reflex of the emergency physician,
May you like
and I bolted out of the consultation room,
leaving Mia sobbing alone in the dark.
