Chapter 10 - Brooke Lang
Brooke Lang chose a public library conference room.
No photographers. No family lawyers. No father.
She arrived wearing jeans, a gray sweater, and the exhausted expression of someone whose last name had become a burden overnight.
"I almost did not come," she said.
Leah nodded.
"I almost did not either."
"Fair."
She placed her phone on the table.
"I had severe headaches and high blood pressure that night. My doctor told me to go in. I thought Room 12 was available because I was sick."
"You were sick," Leah said.
"Yes. But I was not sicker than Alicia."
"You cannot know that."
Brooke looked surprised.
"You are defending me?"
"I am defending the idea that patients should not have to rank themselves. Doctors should."
She unlocked the phone.
The first text was from Charles Lang.
ROOM IS BEING HANDLED. GO TO ARBOR CROWN.
The second was from Corinne.
CROWN ACCESS CONFIRMED. ROOM 12 WILL BE CLEARED BEFORE ARRIVAL.
"Cleared."
Brooke nodded.
"I asked what that meant."
Her reply appeared below.
Brooke: Cleared from what?
Corinne: Administrative issue. Do not worry about it.
Then another message from Charles.
YOU ARE A LANG. STOP APOLOGIZING FOR PEOPLE DOING THEIR JOBS.
Brooke looked away.
"I thought he meant paperwork."
"Did you ever speak to Alicia?"
"No. I did not know her name until yesterday."
Rachel asked permission to preserve the messages.
Brooke agreed.
Then she hesitated.
"There is something else."
She opened an email folder.
"My father sent this to Grant Voss six months before my admission."
Subject: Donor Assurance.
Charles wrote:
If Crown Access cannot guarantee actual placement during a capacity event, then the commitment is worthless. Corinne says legal can manage the language. I need operations to manage the reality.
Leah read the sentence twice.
"Manage the reality."
Brooke swallowed.
"That is how he talks when he wants someone else to do the ugly part."
Charles Lang stood outside.
Brooke went white.
"How did you find me?"
He held up his phone.
"You are still on the family location account."
He looked at Leah.
"You have taken enough from my family."
Brooke stood.
"No, Dad."
May you like
Her voice shook, but she did not sit back down.
"You took something from Alicia's.
