Chapter 3 - The Nurse Who Died
Marcus took Simon’s phone before he could unlock it.
“Give me that,” Simon snapped.
“No,” Victor said.
The single word changed the room.
For eleven months, Victor had trusted Simon with everything: medication, specialists, rehabilitation, even the decision to stop therapy when every test said improvement was impossible.
Now Victor looked at the peeled patch on the table.
“What’s in this?”
Simon’s answer came too fast. “A muscle relaxant. You know that.”
“I know what you told me.”
Eli moved closer to Victor.
“My mom said somebody was making an old man sick on purpose.”
Simon looked at him. “Your mother was unstable.”
Eli lunged.
Marcus caught him around the chest.
“She was not!”
Rosie started crying. Nora scooped her up while Sam pressed both hands over his ears.
Victor’s voice went low.
“Get out, Simon.”
Simon stared at him. “You’re taking medical advice from a homeless child?”
“No. I’m asking for a second opinion.”
That was the first time Simon looked afraid.
Victor saw it.
So did Marcus.
Simon left without another word.
Victor called Massachusetts General and requested Dr. Leah Benton, a neurologist who had argued against giving up on his rehabilitation months earlier. Simon had dismissed her as aggressive and unrealistic.
She arrived after midnight.
Leah examined Victor for nearly an hour.
She tested sensation with cold metal, vibration, pressure, reflex hammers.
When she touched the inside of his right knee, Victor flinched.
Leah froze.
“Did you feel that?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“I thought it was pressure. Maybe imagination.”
She looked at the patch Marcus had sealed inside a plastic evidence bag.
“Who prescribed this exact formulation?”
“Simon.”
Leah’s jaw tightened.
“What?” Victor asked.
“I need a lab before I accuse anyone.”
“Accuse him of what?”
She looked directly at him.
“Keeping your nervous system suppressed.”
The room went silent.
Eli whispered, “My mom was right.”
Leah turned toward him.
“You’re Elena Marquez’s son?”
He nodded.
Leah sat down slowly.
“I tried to call your mother the week she died.”
Eli stared.
“Why?”
“Because she sent me Victor’s bloodwork.”
Victor gripped the arms of his wheelchair.
“What did it show?”
May you like
Leah answered quietly.
“A drug that was never on your medication list.”
