Chapter 35 Bennett’s Office
“Bathrooms first p>
Bennett said it before welcome, before good morning, before any sentence that could pretend this was a normal office visit.
The Bellamy Ventures lobby was not a lobby in the way Dario’s world understood the word. There was no marble wall with a surname lit like a verdict, no bowl of white orchids trained into obedience, no receptionist positioned behind stone as if she guarded a temple. There were worktables-real ones, long pale wood marked by laptop scratches and coffee rings. A wall of pinned shipping maps, clinic flyers, budge charts, sticky notes, and photographs of buildings before renovation. A printer hissed in the corner beside shelves of labeled binders. Someone had left a bike helmet on a filing cabinet.
It was still expensive- the air had that cleaned-glass, renovated-brick, good-coffee smell of money that liked to call itself practical. But the place was built for people to use it, not admire it from the correct distance.
I stood just inside the entrance with Isolde at my left, Anika’s assistant ahead of us, and my hospital bag in Grant’s opposite universe of absence. Bennett had met us at the elevator, stepped back immediately, and did not look at the bag longer than a second. I was grateful for that, then angry that gratitude had become necessary.
“Bathrooms first,” he repeated, pointing without moving toward me. “There is one through that corridor, second door on the left. No stairs. It has a chair inside and a call button because we host medical-access trainings here p>
Isolde looked at him. “You have a bathroom with a chair p>
“Several p>
“I dislike how useful that is p>
“Most people do eventually p>
He pointed again. “Quiet room is there. Door stays unlocked from the inside and outside unless you choose otherwise. It has a couch, water, crackers, dimmer switch, no cameras. Conference room is straight ahead. East stairwell beyond the printer. West stairwell behind the kitchen. Elevators there. Service exit through the loading hall, but I would not use it unless there is a fire or legal reason to avoid cameras, because it opens onto an alley p>
He paused. “Do you want the shorter route to the bathroom before anything else p>
Yes. My bladder had been negotiating with my dignity since the car. I hated every person who had ever built a legal system that required a 29- week pregnant woman on activity restriction to attend secure meetings in person after a remote hearing.
To be fair, we were not here because the court required it. We were here because the St. Orla nurse refused phones, Anika refused uncontrolled locations, and Bennett had a secure internal room with no exterior directory, 2 exits, and a legal team already onsite after the morning hearing.
The remote hearing had lasted 37 minutes. The judge had not granted Dario’s access outright. She had also not denied it cleanly. Temporary privacy order held for now. Supplemental submissions due. Medical-care continuity to be preserved. No party to contact current providers except through counsel pending further review.
Pending – the most exhausting word in law. It meant we had not lost. It did not mean we could sit down.
The judge had appeared as a face in a square, shelves behind her and no patience for theatrical urgency. Dario had not spoken – his lawyer
MoboReader – Read Book & Story
INSTALL
A foundation made her heir. Her ex? He’s
1/4
ΚΙΚΑ
< Chapter 35
had done it for him, calm and grave, saying fetal welfare and coordinated care as if the words had been washed before court.
I had stayed mostly silent. That had been Anika’s instruction and Dr. Price’s recommendation. My affidavit spoke where my pulse could not. When the judge asked whether I was currently receiving prenatal care, Anika answered with Dr. Price’s note already filed. When Dario’s lawyer referred to concealment, Anika gave the court the smart-lock status, portal access requests, unauthorized transfer refusal, and the order of events around St. Orla’s restriction.
I appeared only once. The judge asked whether I understood the remote-hearing process and whether I was able to participate. I said yes. My voice did not shake. My hand did, off camera, under the blanket. That was law, apparently- the part of me visible to the court could be competent while the rest of me negotiated with adrenaline and a 29-week uterus.
“Bathroom,” I said.
No one made it an event – that was kind. Isolde walked beside me but did not hold my arm. Bennett stayed where he was. Anika’s assistent opened the hallway door and then moved out of the way before I reached it.
The bathroom did, in fact, have a chair. It also had a small shelf with sealed toothbrushes, wipes, sanitary pads, and protein bars in a clear bin labeled unclaimed supplies. I stared at the label for longer than necessary. Unclaimed. Not charity, not emergency dignity kit-just supplies no one had to perform gratitude over.
I washed my hands and looked at myself in the mirror. My face was pale from too little sleep. My hair was tied back badly. The dark cardigan stretched around my stomach, and the top button of my coat had given up during the car ride. I looked visibly pregnant. Too visible,
apparently.
On the shelf beneath the mirror, someone had taped a small card.
If you need more time, take it.
No logo, no donor name, no woman’s silhouette holding a leaf – just permission in black marker. I stared at it until my eyes burned.
Dario’s world specialized in permission that came with a hook: stay here because I am protecting you, use this doctor because I arranged it, wait because timing matters, accept the apartment because it is safer than being on your own. This card offered nothing but time in a bathroom. It was ridiculous that I nearly cried over that. It was also not ridiculous at all.
“Still there?” Isolde asked from outside.
“Where would I go p>
“There is a vent. You are determined p>
“I am also large p>
“Noted p>
When we returned, Bennett was speaking quietly with Mara near the conference room. He stopped before I was close enough to catch more than “no direct intake without counsel present.” Good – let rooms have edges.
“The nurse is 8 minutes out,” Mara said. “She agreed to leave her phone in the reception lockbox. We will do the same for everyone entering the room p>
“No phones,” I said.
“No phones,” Mara confirmed. “Paper notes only. Counsel present. You can leave at any time p>
Bennett looked toward the quiet room, not the conference room. “You do not have to wait in there,” he said. “Quiet room is closer to the bathroom and has the better chair. We can bring the nurse to you only if you want that p>
2/4
A®
MoboReader – Read Book & Story
INSTALL
A foundation made her heir. Her ex? He’s
ETEA
< Chapter 35
I looked through the open door. The room was plain – a couch, 2 chairs, a small table, a lamp, a folded blanket in a basket, water bottles, crackers, and a low shelf with children’s books. The window faced an interior courtyard rather than the street. No glass wall. No polished trap of transparency.
“Who uses it?” I asked.
“Staff. Visitors. Parents with children. Anyone who needs not to be looked at for a while p>
Not to be looked at. The sentence landed with embarrassing force. Dario’s apartment had been private because he owned it. This room was private because someone had understood being seen could become another demand.
“I will wait there,” I said.
“Do you want the door open p>
“Yes p>
He opened it wider and stepped aside. That was all-no hand at my back, no guiding pressure at my elbow, no claim disguised as assistance. Useful care felt almost indecent in its restraint.
I sat in the better chair, which was ugly, supportive, and therefore perfect. Isolde put my water within reach. Mara placed a yellow legal pad on the table. Anika entered with her own phone already sealed in a gray pouch.
The meeting began 11 minutes later. The St. Orla nurse called herself Tamsin – older than I expected, with silver threaded through black hair and a face built by decades of not saying everything she knew. She wore no badge. Her hands were bare except for a plain watch.
She looked at my stomach first- not rudely, like a nurse. Then she looked at my face.
“You should not be here long p>
“I am aware p>
“Are you having pain p>
“Not currently p>
“Good. If that changes, stop talking to me p>
Isolde’s eyebrows rose. I liked Tamsin immediately and trusted that liking not at all.
Mara showed her the authorization and scope letter. Tamsin read every line, then signed a note acknowledging she was speaking voluntarily, without documents removed from St. Orla, and without disclosing patient records beyond process irregularities she personally observed. Process irregularities- another clean phrase for someone moving the furniture around a crime.
Tamsin spoke for 22 minutes. Donor-event intake had originally logged me as a patient escort because I came from imaging with an ultrasound envelope and no donor badge. After Dario identified me publicly as work-related, someone altered the internal incident category to guest disruption. Before anyone took my statement, a draft note had been started tying the incident to emotional distress and possible late-pregnancy instability. The donor office requested a list of attendees who had seen me. St. Orla counsel asked records staff to flag all outside requests concerning me. Then Dr. Merrow’s partner portal viewed my file.
Tamsin did not know who ordered all of it. She knew the order arrived before my version of events did.
Anika asked questions with a pen instead of a keyboard because the lockbox held our devices.
“Was the correction time-stamped p>
“Yes p>
MoboReader – Read Book & Story
INSTALL
bor away. A foundation made her heir. Her ex? He’s
3/4
DU
Chapter 35
“Do you remember the approximate time p>
“After she left the donor corridor. Before 5:00 PM p>
“Who had authority to edit classification p>
“Donor operations lead, security liaison, hospital counsel, sometimes executive admin if it is an event p>
“Did clinical staff enter the instability language p>
Tamsin’s face hardened. “Not the first draft p>
The room changed around that answer. Even Bennett, still outside the door, went very still.
Anika wrote slowly. “You personally saw a draft using instability language before a clinician assessed Aveline in relation to the donor incident p>
“Yes p>
“Can you testify to that if subpoenaed p>
Tamsin looked at me. Not at Anika. “If it comes to that p>
I believed her and did not let relief make a home out of it. Witnesses were people, not furniture—they could be frightened, they could be pressured, they could change their minds when the cost became visible. But for 1 moment, St. Orla’s smooth wall had a crack with a human face behind it.
I took 3 slow breaths when she finished. The chair held me. The room held me. The open door held too much hallway and just enough air.
“Why tell me?” I asked.
Tamsin looked at the yellow pad instead of my face. “Because I charted through 28 years of husbands who were concerned in public and dangerous in discharge planning p>
No one spoke.
Then the reception desk phone rang outside-not a mobile, an office line. Bennett appeared in the hallway, expression changed. He did not
enter.
“Mara,” he said. “Security just sent a photo from street level. The man outside the building matches the investigator Dario used at Aveline’s former apartment p>
My body went very still. Bennett’s hand stayed on the doorframe, not blocking it.
“He photographed the entrance 4 minutes ago p>
End of chapter
MoboReader – Read Book & Story
INSTALL
foundation made her heir. Her ex? He’s
Tai Jun
Tai Jun is a dreamer and storyteller who believes the sky is never the limit. He spends most of his time with his friend Lian, chasing new horizons and crafting tales that soar beyond boundaries.