“SHE TOOK HER BRACE EVERY TIME DAD LEFT”

Dr. Elaine Foster arrived twenty minutes later.

She examined Ruby in my library while Lucinda waited under guard in the sitting room.

"The leg is inflamed," Elaine said. "She should not have been walking without support."

I looked at Ruby.

"How many times?"

Ruby counted on her fingers.

"A lot."

Elaine's jaw tightened.

"I need to tell you something. Lucinda called my office three times this month."

"About what?"

"She said you were considering stopping Ruby's treatment. She asked me to rewrite the care plan."

"I never said that."

"I know."

Elaine opened her tablet.

A portal request had been submitted under my name.

Reduce physical supports. Encourage unsupported weight bearing. Review whether symptoms are behavioral.

My signature appeared at the bottom.

It was perfect.

It was fake.

Marco leaned over my shoulder.

"That request came from inside the house network."

I felt something cold settle behind my ribs.

Lucinda had not simply been cruel when nobody was watching.

She had been building paperwork.

That frightened me more than the video. Cruelty could be denied as temper. Paperwork could survive rooms, witnesses, and memory. A lie repeated on forms became a file. A file became a diagnosis. A diagnosis could become a court order. Someone had been trying to turn my daughter's pain into evidence against her.

I walked into the sitting room.

"Why did you contact Ruby's doctor pretending to be me?"

Lucinda laughed softly.

"I didn't."

I placed the tablet in front of her.

Her eyes moved once.

Too fast.

"Someone must have used my laptop."

"Your laptop?"

She realized the mistake immediately.

I had never said which device was used.

Marco noticed too.