Chapter 2

Kaelin's POV

Later that morning, while I was reviewing files at the nurses' station, a commotion broke out down the hall.

"Ms. Zayda, you can't go in there!"

I looked up just in time to see Zayda pushing open the doors to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She reached right toward a baby in an incubator, but the on-duty nurse physically blocked her path.

"You need authorization to handle the newborns, and you haven't sanitized your hands."

"I just want to touch it. It's not like I'm going to break him." Zayda scowled. "Jasper never said I couldn't come in here. Stop me again, and I'll have him fire you."

The nurse didn't budge. Zayda cursed under her breath and finally stormed off.

Not long after, I spotted her in the waiting area. A woman was clutching her lab results, anxiously asking about her metrics. Zayda glanced at the paper and casually chimed in: "I read online that when those numbers spike together, it's a sign of terminal cancer. You should probably call your family."

All the blood drained from the patient's face, and she burst into tears on the spot. A nurse quickly grabbed the chart: "Don't listen to her! A doctor hasn't even diagnosed you yet; a single abnormal metric doesn't mean anything."

Instead of leaving, Zayda snatched a different patient's file and started texting on her phone. "The patients here are so gullible. I casually mentioned cancer and she lost her mind sobbing."

I told the nurse to calm the patient down and headed straight for the Lab Director, Sterling Boone.

"Does this happen often?"

Sterling checked my inspector's badge, pulled me into the fire stairwell, and made sure the door was shut tight.

"It's worse than what you saw. She once treated the pediatric nebulizer masks like toys, wearing them for selfies before putting them back unsterilized. An asthmatic child used one, spiked a horrific fever, and ended up in the ICU. We almost lost him."

"Who took the blame?"

"The Head of Pediatrics was suspended for three months, and the entire department lost their bonuses. Jasper claimed it was a 'management failure'."

He paused.

"The maternity ward breach you're investigating? That was her too. She used Jasper's all-access swipe card to barge into the delivery room, claiming she wanted to see how babies were born. The nurses couldn't stop her. She filmed the delivery and posted it online. When the fallout hit, Liora Cortez, a probationary nurse, was made the scapegoat. First a write-up, then fired."

"And Jasper knew the truth?"

"He knew from day one." Sterling smiled bitterly. "Haven-Crest used to be a model hospital. Now, our veteran staff are all submitting transfer requests. Everyone left is just praying they aren't the next scapegoat."

My heart crashed into my stomach. Two years as an executive, and all Jasper had learned was how to blur the lines between his personal sins and his professional duty. He let Zayda trample the rules, then forced dedicated medical staff to pay the price.

I headed straight to the Medical Records Department to pull the original investigation report that had ruined Liora’s career.

Right as I stepped out, Zayda was marching down the hall holding an iced Americano. Her eyes locked onto the thick file in my arms.

"What's in there? Let me see."

"These are confidential records. You don't have authorization," I said, stepping aside.

Her face darkened. "You don't know who I am, do you? There isn't a single piece of paper in this hospital I can't look at."

"This department answers to federal healthcare laws, not your idle curiosity."

She reached out and snatched at it. I hugged the file tighter and dodged. She missed, stumbled forward, and the iced Americano slipped from her hand, splashing directly onto the folder. Brown liquid instantly soaked through the pages. The entire hallway came to a dead stop.

I looked her dead in the eye. "Trespassing in clinical areas, leaking patient data, and now destroying confidential medical records. Zayda Voss, how exactly do you plan to answer for this?"

She froze for a few seconds, then pointed a trembling, furious finger at my face.

"Who the hell do you think you are, interrogating me? I'm Jasper's girlfriend! Whatever he says goes, which means I run this place. I could burn this records room to the ground, and it still wouldn't be your place to lecture me!"