Chapter 5 - THE FOURTH FLOOR
They went in on a Saturday.
Not because it was smart.
Because Jack had waited long enough to watch his life be rearranged by other people.
Elena came with him, armed with a press badge, a digital recorder, and enough fearless anger for both of them.
Monica hated the plan.
“That key card is not an invitation. It’s evidence.”
“Then we’ll preserve it,” Elena said.
They entered the Saint Catherine’s Research Pavilion through the parking level around 6:40 p.m.
Level 4 housed clinical administration, locked archives, and offices tied to several privately funded research partnerships.
The key card worked.
Jack’s chest tightened the moment the reader blinked green.
That meant the access hadn’t been canceled.
Meaning Emily wanted him to use it.
Or someone wanted him caught using it.
Either way, the risk was real.
They moved quickly down a silent corridor lined with glass offices.
Emily’s badge log later would show her card had opened the floor at that time.
Jack did not know that yet.
He only knew that Room 4B-17 contained Emily’s nameplate, and inside the office there was almost nothing personal except one framed photo turned face-down in a drawer.
He turned it over.
It was the two of them.
Not recent.
Three years old.
A county fair in late summer.
Emily laughing.
Jack sunburned and grinning stupidly into the camera.
Elena noticed the tremor in his hand and said nothing.
They searched.
Most drawers contained ordinary papers: rotations, credentialing forms, hospital policy packets.
Then Jack found a locked bottom cabinet.
The key card did not help, but the lock was cheap and the cabinet old. Jack knew how to open stubborn things.
Inside was a flat document box.
On top sat a sealed envelope.
JACK—IF YOU FOUND THIS, DON’T TRUST THE ENGAGEMENT.
His heart slammed.
Inside the envelope was a five-page letter in Emily’s handwriting and a flash drive taped beneath the flap.
The first paragraph made him sit down.
Jack,
If you’re reading this, then either I finally found the courage to leave, or something happened and Ryan forced things to move faster than planned. Before you decide whether to hate me, you need the truth—and I owe it to you even if you never forgive me.
Jack kept reading.
By page two, his hands were numb.
By page three, Elena was swearing under her breath.
By page five, Jack understood two unbearable things at once:
May you like
Emily had betrayed him.
And she had also been trying, in a crooked and terrible way, to protect him.
