Chapter 10 - THE WOMEN OF FLOOR NINE
Agents found six patients during the raid.
Emily.
A seventy-two-year-old widow whose son wanted control of a hotel chain.
A thirty-eight-year-old lawyer disputing a family trust.
A former hospital accountant.
A politician’s wife.
A nineteen-year-old heiress who refused an arranged marriage.
All carried diagnoses written by Price.
All had family members benefiting from incapacity.
The patients were not immediately released.
Some required medical stabilization.
Some had been drugged for months.
Some no longer trusted anyone claiming rescue.
Federal agents could secure doors.
They could not command recovery.
Independent advocates entered.
Private doctors.
Attorneys.
Trauma specialists.
Every woman received the same first question:
“What do you want to happen next?”
The former accountant, Jane Mercer, asked for a laptop.
She had memorized account numbers.
The widow asked for her dog.
The nineteen-year-old asked whether her father knew where she was.
Emily asked for the camera footage from the lobby.
Victoria asked why.
“Because I need to see whether I reached for you first.”
Victoria understood.
Emily wanted proof that even under sedation and fear, she still chose her mother.
May you like
The footage showed her hands extended.
Victoria gave her the copy.
