Chapter 1
“Tell me what you need, Allison,” Raymond replied instantly over the phone.
“First, I get all our shared property and money, and you can use his illegal kickbacks from drug companies to force him to agree,” I said. “Second, Bradley gets absolutely nothing. Third, I want his medical license permanently taken away.”
Raymond smiled on the other end of the line. “I will file the papers before sunrise, Doctor Palmer, so you just rest up.”
After hanging up, I reached into my bag on the table and pulled out a small digital voice recorder I always kept with me in the ER. It had been tucked inside my gown during the entire delivery. I pressed the play button with my thumb.
“Turn off the epidural pump, hold her arms down, and let us finish this delivery! If she codes, I will take full responsibility, so hold her down right now!”
Bradley’s cold voice filled the quiet room alongside the loud alarms of the monitors. I saved the audio file to three different online accounts so it could never be deleted. Then I called a private medical transport company owned by a wealthy patient whose life I had saved a few years ago.
By three in the morning, four security guards and two private nurses arrived at my room with a transport stretcher. Even though the movement caused terrible pain in my stomach, I signed the papers to leave the hospital against medical advice. The nurse wept as she processed my baby’s paperwork, handing me my sleeping son, whom I named Winter.
Before leaving, I left the divorce papers, the lawsuit documents, and the digital recorder right on the bedside table with the red light blinking. In emergency medicine, when a part of the body is dead, you cut it off immediately and never look back.
From the back of the transport van, I opened my phone app to watch the hidden camera feed Bradley had set up in my hospital room. At four thirty in the morning, Bradley walked into the room wearing his coat over his scrubs, looking tired. He was holding a bag of takeout soup as a fake peace offering.
“Allison, stop acting mad and get up to eat,” he called out annoyed as he walked inside. “You started that whole fight by attacking Hannah, but if you eat this, we can just forget it happened.”
He stopped talking when he saw the empty bed and checked the bathroom in a panic. When he came back out, he noticed the papers on the table, tossed the soup in the trash, and picked them up. As he read the divorce demand and the lawsuit, all the alcohol left his system, and then he pressed play on the recorder.
“Hold her down right now!”
Bradley dropped the recorder on the floor in shock and looked around the room like a madman. He pulled out his phone and called my number immediately. I declined the call, popped the SIM card out of my phone, and threw it out the van window into the dark road.
Let him panic, I thought to myself as I leaned back into the seat. I knew how Bradley operated, and when a arrogant man gets cornered, he destroys everything around him, but I was already steps ahead.
Part 3: The Ghost in the Machine
The transport van drove through the dark mountain roads until we reached Highland Crest Sanctuary, a private recovery facility hidden in the hills. The place had top tier medical equipment, and it was owned by Gavin Barrett, a powerful businessman. I was taken to a large suite overlooking the autumn trees, and as soon as the nurses left, I opened my laptop.
I logged onto the State Medical Board website and filed a full whistleblower complaint against Bradley Jenkins. Along with the recording of his abuse in the OR, I attached evidence showing that all his famous research papers were actually written by me using fake data he approved. Destroying his marriage was just the start, but taking away his medical reputation would destroy him completely.
I submitted the report just as the sun started to rise over the mountains. Over the next three days, I rested and received special medical care to heal my body. On the third day, my lawyer Raymond Finch called me on video.
“Allison, your report completely wrecked him,” Raymond said with a laugh. “The health department raided his clinic this morning, suspended his license, locked his office, and suspended Hannah’s internship too.”
“What about his money?” I asked quietly.
“He is trying to sell your house, but the court froze all his accounts yesterday,” Raymond explained. “He has no cash left, and the government is demanding he pay back thousands of dollars in fake research grants.”
“Make sure he gets served with the court papers right in the middle of the hospital lobby,” I told him before closing the screen.
A moment later, the door opened and Gavin Barrett walked into my room. He was wearing a sharp dark suit, looking completely calm and confident. He did not offer any fake sympathy, but instead dropped a black leather folder onto my table.
“I am opening the Barrett Medical Center downtown next month,” Gavin said in a deep voice. “I have the best equipment, but I need a strong leader to run the ER, so I want you as my Chief Medical Officer.”
I looked at the folder. “Mister Barrett, I am a sick woman in the middle of a huge public scandal, so hiring me will look bad for your business.”
“I do not care about your ex husband, Allison,” Gavin replied, looking straight into my eyes. “I only care about how good of a doctor you are, and you belong in charge, not hiding in a bedroom.”
His words gave me a sudden surge of motivation, so I picked up a pen and signed the contract right away.
“Give me thirty days to clean up my personal mess, and I will be there,” I told him.
Meanwhile, Bradley’s life was falling apart fast. Without me to write his medical plans or guide his decisions, his lack of skill was exposed to everyone. During an emergency surgery on a bleeding patient, Bradley completely froze under the lights because his hands were shaking so bad.
The Chief of Surgery had to push him out of the way and yell, “Get out of here, you useless idiot!”
The patient survived, but her uterus had to be removed because of Bradley’s delay. When Bradley walked out into the hallway, the patient’s husband punched him hard in the jaw, knocking him to the floor while other doctors just watched without helping.
Bradley had to move into a tiny, dirty apartment with Hannah, where she constantly yelled at him about money and rent. Desperate, Bradley dug through his old boxes until he found my personal medical journal. Reading through my notes, he finally realized that I was the reason for his success, and he broke down crying on the floor.
Three weeks later, I attended a major medical event at The Hermitage Grand Ballroom in Nashville, wearing a beautiful black dress provided by Gavin. I was there to give the main speech of the night. Bradley had managed to sneak in wearing a messy suit to beg for money from rich donors, but everyone ignored him.
When the lights went down, the host announced me as the new Chief Medical Officer of Barrett Medical Center. As I walked onto the stage, the entire room clapped loudly, while Bradley watched from the back in complete shock.
After my speech ended, Bradley lost his mind and ran through the crowd toward my table, screaming my name. Security guards tackled him to the floor before he could reach me.
“She is my wife! Tell them who I am, Allison!” he screamed, spitting blood onto the ground.
I looked down at him without any emotion. “Mister Barrett, your security is slacking, so please get this trash out of here,” I said softly.
The guards dragged Bradley out the door while he kept screaming at me. That night, back in their terrible apartment, Hannah screamed at Bradley for ruining her life.
“You lost everything and you cannot even pay rent!” she yelled.
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Bradley lost his temper and slapped her across the face, grabbing her hair. “You ruined me! If you did not trick me in the OR, I would still be a top doctor!”
Hannah wiped the blood from her lip and sneered at him. “You cannot leave me, Bradley, because I am pregnant with your baby.”
