Chapter 5 - The Complaint Against Nurse Marsh
Camille filed the licensing complaint against Adeline the following Monday.
Adeline learned about it while sitting beside Wes in a children's hospital waiting room.
Her brother was wearing a paper bracelet and pretending not to be scared.
She read the email once.
Then locked her phone.
Wes looked at her.
"Bad?"
"No."
"You make that face when it's bad."
"What face?"
"The one where your eyebrows become enemies."
Despite herself, she laughed.
The surgery coordinator called Wes's name.
He reached for her hand.
"You'll be here when I wake up?"
"Yes."
"Promise?"
This one she could keep.
"I promise."
Four hours later, while Wes was still in surgery, Nico arrived.
No entourage.
One security man waited in the hallway.
Adeline stood.
"What are you doing here?"
"I heard."
"About Wes?"
"About the complaint."
Her shoulders stiffened.
"Nico."
"I brought a lawyer."
"No."
"He is outside."
"No."
"He works for the company."
"Still no."
Nico stared at her.
"Why?"
"Because Camille's complaint says I manipulated a wealthy disabled patient for access and money."
His face changed.
Adeline continued.
"If your personal attorney suddenly becomes my attorney, it helps her story."
Nico sat back.
"You thought of that in five seconds?"
"I have experience being professionally destroyed."
That ended the argument.
He looked toward the operating-room doors.
"How long?"
"Four hours so far."
"Do you want company?"
The question surprised her.
Not help.
Not money.
Company.
"Yes."
He stayed.
For two hours they talked about nothing related to Camille.
Wes liked model airplanes.
Nico hated opera despite owning a box at the Lyric because his mother had loved it.
Adeline admitted she had once failed a college anatomy quiz because she spent the night before watching a reality show marathon with Tessa.
Nico laughed.
"Scandalous."
"Do not tell the licensing board."
When the surgeon finally came out, Adeline stood so fast her chair tipped backward.
"The procedure went well."
Her knees nearly gave.
Nico caught the chair, not her.
He seemed to understand she needed to stand on her own.
The surgeon explained recovery, follow-up, and what to watch for.
Adeline cried only after he left.
Quietly.
Nico looked toward the window.
He gave her privacy without leaving.
Later, Tessa arrived with something more useful than a lawyer.
Chain-of-custody documentation.
The toxicology lab report.
Photographs Adeline had taken before removing the two tablets.
Courier receipt.
Dates.
Times.
Specimen seal numbers.
"You did this like you expected court," Nico said.
Adeline wiped her face.
"I expected not to be believed."
That sentence stayed with him.
The licensing board scheduled a preliminary review.
Camille's complaint accused Adeline of diversion, falsification of medication records, and inappropriate influence over Nico.
Adeline responded with evidence.
Delia submitted a sworn statement describing the identical framing method months earlier.
Dr. Ortiz documented Nico's improvement after the suspect medication was removed.
The dispensing pharmacy confirmed no legitimate substitution had been authorized.
Then Bruno found the detail Camille had missed.
The service-stair video did not show her face.
But the home's smart-lighting system logged motion and device proximity.
At 1:17 a.m., Camille's phone connected automatically to the medication-room hallway speaker.
At 1:22, it disconnected.
Adeline never took her phone out of her bedroom that night.
The licensing investigator looked at the records.
Then at Camille's complaint.
Then at Adeline.
"Why would Ms. Ashcroft frame you?"
Adeline answered honestly.
"Because I noticed something she needed nobody to notice."
The complaint was not dismissed that day.
Processes moved slower than truth.
But Adeline walked out with her license active and no emergency suspension.
Nico waited outside.
"How bad?"
"Not over."
"That was not my question."
She looked at him.
"I still have my license."
His shoulders lowered.
"Good."
She smiled faintly.
"Wes is home tomorrow."
"Good."
He looked as though he wanted to say more.
Instead he asked, "Do you need anything?"
Adeline thought.
"One thing."
"Name it."
"Stop calling me Nurse Marsh when you're angry."
He blinked.
"What?"
"You only say 'Nurse Marsh' when you're about to argue with me."
He considered.
"That's true."
"Use Adeline."
"Fine."
"Fine."
He smiled.
Then his phone rang.
Bruno.
Nico answered.
His face changed within seconds.
"What happened?"
He listened.
Then looked at Adeline.
"Someone broke into Delia's apartment."
Adeline went cold.
"Is she hurt?"
"No. She wasn't home."
"What did they take?"
Nico listened again.
"The old phone."
The voicemail.
The one piece of evidence Camille had not known still existed.
Nico ended the call.
Adeline stared at him.
"She knows Delia talked."
"Yes."
"And she is still willing to take risks."
"Yes."
Adeline picked up her coat.
Nico frowned.
"Where are you going?"
"Back to your house."
"Why?"
"Because if Camille is destroying evidence, she is scared."
Adeline looked directly at him.
"And scared people make mistakes."
After the licensing interview, Adeline visited Wes at home.
He was pale, sore, and furious that everyone kept asking how he felt.
"How do you feel?" she asked.
He glared.
"Traitor."
She laughed.
He pointed to the couch.
"Sit."
She obeyed.
Wes folded another paper crane slowly because one hand still had tape marks from the IV.
"Are you going back to the big house?"
"Yes."
"Do you like the guy?"
Adeline nearly choked.
"What?"
"The wheelchair guy."
"Nico."
"Whatever."
"He is my patient."
"That wasn't my question."
Seven years old.
No mercy.
Adeline took the unfinished crane from him and folded one wing badly.
Wes fixed it.
"He's difficult," she said.
"So are you."
"Thank you."
"That means yes."
"It means go to sleep."
Wes grinned.
Later, while driving back north, Adeline admitted something to herself she would not have admitted to Tessa.
She cared what happened to Nico beyond the job.
That was exactly why she needed the rules.
Care without boundaries could become another form of control.
May you like
Camille had proved that.
Adeline refused to repeat it in a kinder voice.
