Chapter 4 - The House of Cards
The following week, the implosion was total.
The audit of the hospital’s private funds had triggered a federal investigation. Connor’s firm was raided by the SEC at dawn. The news stations were running segments on his "fraudulent business practices."
I sat in my office, watching the headlines roll across my computer screen. My phone rang.
"It’s over," Julian said. "He's being detained for questioning. The donors are distancing themselves. The board is calling an emergency meeting to remove the chair, and Melinda has filed for a restraining order."
"Is she safe?"
"She’s under protection," he replied. "She’s cooperating with the DA. She’s giving them everything—the threats, the coercion, the falsified records. Connor is done, Kirsten."
I felt a profound, quiet sense of relief. It wasn't the explosive, angry triumph I had expected. It was the feeling of a patient finally waking up from a long, complicated surgery, stable and on the road to recovery.
"Are you coming in?" Julian asked.
"I'll be there in an hour," I said.
I walked to the hospital's chapel, a place I had often gone during my years of heartbreak. It was empty. I sat in the front pew and just breathed.
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For the first time in my life, I didn't feel defined by my marriage, or my divorce, or the medical issues that had once been used to break me. I was just me.
Dr. Kirsten Sinclair. And that was enough.
