Chapter 6 - The Account That Was Never Mine
The name on the screen was mine.
Quinn Parker.
I stared at it.
Nobody said anything.
Because there were some moments when words only made things worse.
The hospital computer displayed the access record clearly.
USER: QUINN.PARKER
LOCATION: RESTRICTED ARCHIVE
TIME: 12:07 AM
I felt my stomach tighten.
"No."
The word came out before I even realized I had spoken.
The security officer looked at me.
"You recognize this?"
I stepped closer.
"I have never accessed that archive."
The officer frowned.
"But the system shows your credentials."
"I said I never accessed it."
My voice was louder this time.
Everyone heard it.
Adrian watched me carefully.
Not suspicious.
Not yet.
But calculating.
He was trying to understand something.
So was I.
Because this was impossible.
Three years ago, someone had destroyed my career using a false story.
Tonight, someone had saved a file under my name.
And somehow, both events were connected.
Whitfield slowly moved away from the computer.
That scared me more than if he had tried to stop us.
A guilty person would panic.
A guilty person would fight.
But Whitfield looked like someone who had just realized another player had entered the game.
"Who else has access to the archive?" Adrian asked.
The security officer answered.
"Only senior medical staff and authorized legal personnel."
Adrian looked at Whitfield.
"So your credentials."
Whitfield's expression hardened.
"Many people have administrative access."
"Not mine."
Adrian stared at him.
"You seem very certain."
Whitfield ignored him.
"Quinn, listen to me."
I almost laughed.
Because hearing my name from him felt strange now.
For years, I had wanted him to listen to me.
Now he wanted me to listen to him.
"Why?"
His eyes narrowed.
"Because whoever did this is trying to frame you."
I looked at him.
"That is exactly what happened three years ago."
Silence.
The sentence landed.
Hard.
Whitfield looked away.
And that was when I noticed something.
He wasn't denying it.
Not completely.
I turned toward Evelyn.
"You knew this would happen."
She looked down.
"I suspected."
"Suspected?"
My frustration rose.
"Everyone seems to know more than me."
Adrian looked at me.
"Because you were the one person they couldn't control."
I shook my head.
"No."
I looked at the computer.
"No, they controlled me."
I remembered the meetings.
The whispers.
The accusations.
The way people looked at me after the investigation.
Like I was unstable.
Like I was the problem.
"They destroyed my career."
Adrian's expression changed.
"Not your career."
I looked at him.
"Then what?"
He hesitated.
"My brother's evidence."
The room went quiet.
I looked at Evelyn.
Then Adrian.
Then Whitfield.
"What evidence?"
Nobody answered immediately.
That was becoming a pattern.
Everyone knew something.
Everyone except me.
Finally, Evelyn spoke.
"Luca was investigating the hospital before he died."
I frowned.
"My brother was not just a patient," Adrian said.
"He was looking into something."
"What?"
Evelyn walked toward the computer.
She opened another file.
A list appeared.
Patient names.
Dates.
Medical records.
My eyes moved across the screen.
Then stopped.
Because I recognized one of the names.
A patient from three years ago.
Then another.
Then another.
All cases where something had gone wrong.
All cases where complaints had disappeared.
"This isn't possible."
"It is," Evelyn said.
I looked at her.
"What is this?"
"A pattern."
Adrian answered.
"For years, people who questioned certain hospital decisions ended up silent."
The room became colder.
I thought about Luca.
Then about myself.
"You think the deaths were connected?"
Evelyn didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
The evidence was already there.
The computer continued loading files.
One folder opened automatically.
The title appeared.
PROJECT NIGHTFALL.
Nobody moved.
Whitfield's face changed.
Adrian saw it.
"You know that name."
Whitfield stayed silent.
"Doctor."
Still nothing.
Adrian slowly pushed himself off the bed.
Pain crossed his face.
The bodyguards immediately stepped forward.
He ignored them.
"You were part of it."
Whitfield finally looked at him.
"You have no idea what you're dealing with."
"Then explain."
Whitfield looked around the room.
At everyone.
At the evidence.
At the people who could now hear the truth.
Then he said something unexpected.
"I was trying to stop it."
Nobody believed him.
Including me.
"Stop what?"
He looked at the screen.
"Nightfall wasn't created to kill people."
A pause.
"It was created to hide mistakes."
I stared at him.
"That doesn't make sense."
"It does when the mistakes involve powerful people."
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
"Who?"
Whitfield didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at me.
And there was something in his expression I had never seen before.
Regret.
"You were never fired because you were wrong."
My chest tightened.
"Then why?"
"Because you were getting too close."
I stepped forward.
"Close to what?"
Whitfield opened his mouth.
Before he could answer, every monitor in the trauma room suddenly changed.
The screens went black.
Then one message appeared.
Not from the hospital.
Not from the system.
A message typed manually.
I felt every person in the room freeze.
Because it wasn't addressed to Adrian.
It wasn't addressed to Whitfield.
It was addressed to me.
QUINN PARKER.
YOU FOUND THE FILE.
NOW FIND THE PERSON WHO SENT IT.
I stared at the words.
Then another line appeared.
My breathing stopped.
Because the message contained a name.
A name I had not heard in three years.
A name I thought was buried with Luca Vale.
The name appeared slowly.
And Adrian whispered it before the screen finished loading.
"Emma..."
May you like
The door behind us opened.
And the woman standing there was holding the original evidence file from Luca's death.
