Chapter 3 - The Doctor’s Diagnosis
Dr. Marcus Vance didn't look like a healer; he looked like a man who spent more time in boardrooms than bedside vigils. His hair was meticulously styled, his stethoscope hung around his neck like an expensive piece of jewelry, and his eyes scanned the waiting room with the detached boredom of an executive reviewing quarterly losses.
"Captain Mercer?" Dr. Vance asked, checking the chart in his hands.
"I'm here," Lena said, standing up immediately and smoothing the front of her uniform jacket. "How is my grandmother? Can I see her?"
Vance glanced sideways at Gerald, who had crossed his arms and assumed an expression of dignified, long-suffering paternal concern.
"Mrs. Evelyn Mercer is physically stable," Dr. Vance said, his tone measured and clinical. "Her core body temperature has normalized, and we've treated her for mild dehydration. However, given the circumstances of her admission—wandering outdoors in the middle of the night without proper footwear, exhibiting paranoid ideation regarding her family—we’ve admitted her to the geriatric behavioral observation unit for a mandatory seventy-two-hour evaluation."
Lena’s blood ran cold. Behavioral observation unit.
"Paranoid ideation?" Lena stepped directly into Dr. Vance’s personal space, her military bearing asserting itself with terrifying stillness. "Doctor, she told you her son locked her out of the house and packed her bags. I have text messages from my mother confirming they moved her belongings. That isn't paranoid ideation—that's an eyewitness testimony of an eviction."
Dr. Vance blinked, clearly unaccustomed to being challenged so directly inside his own hospital by someone half his age. He adjusted his stethoscope. "Captain, Mrs. Mercer expressed a belief that her home no longer belongs to her and that her son is trying to poison or rob her. Those are classic markers of late-stage cognitive decline. Furthermore, we have on file a legal guardianship proxy executed by Judge Thaddeus Vance designating Gerald and Paula Mercer as her sole medical and financial decision-makers."
"That guardianship proxy is forged," Lena said, her voice rising slightly, drawing the attention of a nearby security guard. "My signature was stolen from my military records. If you keep her locked in that ward under my parents' control, you are acting as an accessory to elder abuse and financial fraud."
Gerald stepped in, playing his part with Academy-Award-winning precision. "See, Marcus? Look at her. She’s completely unhinged. The military deployment... she hasn't been right since she came back from overseas. She thinks everyone is conspiring against her."
"Enough," Dr. Vance said coldly. "Captain Mercer, you are welcome to visit your grandmother during regular visiting hours tomorrow between two and four p.m., provided you do not cause a disturbance or upset her fragile mental state. Until then, security will escort you out of the clinical wing if you attempt unauthorized access."
He turned on his heel and walked back through the double doors, the swing of his white coat punctuating his dismissal.
Gerald smirked, leaning in close to Lena's ear as he passed. "Sleep tight, Captain. Don't let the stress get to you."
Lena didn't shout. She didn't strike him. She stood frozen in the humming fluorescent light, watching her father walk down the corridor to join Paula in the private consultation lounge.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a secure text from Master Sergeant Dexter Shaw.
Dexter Shaw: Captain, I just ran a background check on Dr. Marcus Vance. Guess who sits on the board of directors for the Harlow County Land Development Corp alongside your father?
Lena looked down at her screen.
May you like
Lena: Who?
Dexter Shaw: Dr. Marcus Vance and Judge Thaddeus Vance. They're business partners in the very real estate syndicate trying to buy up the historic Maple Grove district where your grandmother’s house sits. Your father isn't just stealing Evelyn's money, Lena. He's selling her land out from under her to finance a multi-million-dollar commercial development project.
