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Chapter 2

Autor: Shadow Maze
One of the care workers walked to the head of the bed and unplugged the humidifier from the nightstand. "It's Ms. Sutton's orders. Care services end at noon today."

The doctor set a notice down by my pillow. "Mr. Bennett, your family just filed the paperwork to cut off your medication over unpaid bills."

He looked at my face and let out a sigh.

The next morning at 9:00 am, the door to my room swung open. Renee walked in, and behind her came Julian Cross, dressed in a black suit and carrying a file folder.

He walked up to the bed, his eyes moving over the bruises on the back of my hand, then over the ventilator connection at my throat.

"Renee, Miles really does look weak," Julian said.

Renee pulled over a chair, sat down, and crossed her legs. "He once played a corpse in a theater production and held his breath for a long time. A prop like that is nothing to him."

Julian opened the folder and dropped a stack of documents onto my blanket. "Miles, Renee's already bought 30% of this hospital. Starting today, your attending physician is being replaced by someone I brought in. The one who helped you fake those medical records got fired this morning."

I looked at Julian, and my left hand twitched once against the sheet.

Renee stood and walked over to the equipment panel by the bed. She pressed a red button, and the monitor screen connected to me went dark, its readings vanishing.

"Renting this machine costs 1,200 dollars a day," she said, looking down at me. "If there's nothing wrong with you, don't waste the hospital's resources."

Three care workers in green uniforms walked in through the door. Renee pointed at the bed.

"Wheel him down to the general observation ward on the first floor," she ordered. "No need to bring anything."

The workers stepped forward and disconnected every line and cable anchored to the headboard, then wheeled my bed out of the private room. The wheels rattled loudly down the hallway.

My bed rolled through the corridor, into the elevator, and finally stopped in a room tucked into the farthest corner of the first floor. Six beds filled the space, and the air reeked of spoiled food and waste.

The workers pushed my bed against the wall, left the curtain open, and walked out without a word.

Renee and Julian stood in the doorway. The families of the other patients turned to look.

"Miles." Renee walked into the aisle between two beds. "I gave you a chance. Tell me where that three million dollars went and where that old woman is, and I'll let you walk out of this hospital in peace. Otherwise, you can lie here until you're finally ready to talk."

She didn't look at me again. She left the room with Julian trailing behind her.

At 3:00 pm, the patient in the bed beside mine rolled over and knocked a water cup off his nightstand. The water spilled across me completely. His family member walked over, wiped my blanket down with a rag a couple of times, and left it at that.

I stayed flat on my back, unable to move, as the cold water soaked through my hospital gown and pressed against my skin.

By 9:00 pm, fluid had begun to build up at the opening of my tracheotomy tube. Breathing grew harder, and my chest was forced to rise and fall with greater effort.

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  • On My Deathbed, She Wants a Confession   Chapter 10

    Six months later, in winter, inside the ICU of City General Hospital, the numbers on the heart monitor began to fall off a cliff. Oxygen saturation dropped below 60%, and the ventilator let out one high, piercing alarm after another.Dr. Marsh stood at the bedside, watching every reading lose all meaning for resuscitation. She checked the time."Call it," she said.A nurse stepped forward and switched off the ventilator and the monitor. The alarms stopped, and the only sound left in the room was the faint hum of the equipment's cooling fans.Amelia stood at the bedside in a sterile gown. She picked up a damp cloth and slowly wiped my face, smoothed down my hair, and then drew the white sheet up over my head.Outside the room, Renee stood in front of the glass window. Over the past six months, she'd stepped down as CEO of Sutton Group, sold off all three of her properties and every share of her private stock, and put the money into the national ALS research foundation.Julian's se

  • On My Deathbed, She Wants a Confession   Chapter 9

    Renee reached for the tablet on the desk. Her fingers brushed the metal casing with a sharp clink, but her grip failed, and it slid across the surface.She stood without picking the foreign medical papers back up and walked out of the office. She headed for the stairwell, skipping the elevator, and climbed the fire stairs one floor at a time until she reached the ninth floor. She stopped outside the ICU, in front of the glass window.Inside, I lay on the bed. A thick tube ran from the opening at my throat to a ventilator standing half my height beside the bed.A feeding tube ran through my nose, and an IV pump pushed yellow nutrient fluid in a steady rhythm. Months of lying still had wasted my limbs down to almost nothing, the bones visible beneath the skin. My hospital gown hung loose over deep hollows where muscle used to be. An eye-tracking screen was mounted directly above the bed.The ICU door opened, and Renee stepped in wearing a blue sterile gown, a mask, and shoe covers.

  • On My Deathbed, She Wants a Confession   Chapter 8

    Renee walked out through the doors of the holding facility. Sunlight spread across the pavement outside. She made her way to a green trash bin at the curb and doubled over as her stomach seized violently. She leaned over the bin and was sick in the liner.She threw up three times until nothing was left in her stomach but yellow bile. She pulled a handkerchief from her jacket pocket, wiped the corner of her mouth, and dropped it into the bin.Then, she got into her car, started the engine, and drove toward the hospital.Renee returned to City General Hospital, but instead of going up to the ICU on the ninth floor, she went straight to the neurology office on the eighth. Dr. Marsh was reviewing an EEG report. Renee pulled out a chair and sat down across the desk from her."Dr. Marsh, there's an experimental ALS drug currently in Phase 3 trials overseas. I've already arranged a medical charter flight and a team of specialists from overseas. I'll cover every cost." Renee pulled out s

  • On My Deathbed, She Wants a Confession   Chapter 7

    Renee's fingers tightened around the papers, and they crumpled slightly with a soft, folding sound.The ICU's automatic doors slid open, and Dr. Marsh stepped out, pulling off her mask."His blood pressure's stabilized, barely," she said, looking at Amelia. "But the fall caused a second injury to his cervical spine, and it's irreversible."He's lost his ability to swallow and to breathe on his own completely. From here on, he'll need a feeding tube to eat and a ventilator just to keep his vitals going."Renee walked toward her. "Dr. Marsh, I want to transfer him overseas, somewhere with the best equipment available."She pulled out her phone.Dr. Marsh blocked the doorway. "Ms. Sutton, his condition right now can't survive any kind of transport. And according to the authorization document Mr. Bennett signed three days ago using an eye-tracking device, all medical decisions are now entirely in Ms. Bennett's hands. You don't have visitation rights."…At the city police departmen

  • On My Deathbed, She Wants a Confession   Chapter 6

    The officers didn't stop her. Renee followed the gurney down the hallway, and the patients' families lining the walls pressed back to clear a path. The gurney disappeared into the elevator, and the doors closed.Renee stood outside the elevator, watching the floor numbers climb one by one until they stopped on the ninth floor, the ICU.Renee sat down on a plastic bench outside the ICU doors. Dust clung to one side of her suit jacket from where the officers had pinned her against the bed earlier. The hallway light fell across her face.The elevator doors opened, and Amelia burst out. Gauze wrapped her forehead, a patch of yellow fluid seeping through at the center, and a brace was strapped around her right ribs, forcing her to lean to the left as she walked. She crossed straight to Renee.Renee looked up. Amelia's right hand swung and struck her across the left cheek. Renee's body pitched to the right and slammed into the armrest of the plastic chair.She didn't fight back. She sat

  • On My Deathbed, She Wants a Confession   Chapter 5

    Renee's eyes moved slowly from the document in the officer's hand down to me on the floor. I lay on my side against the cold tile, blood still pouring from my throat. My eyes stayed open, my gaze passing straight through her toward the pale gray window across the room.Dr. Marsh knelt on the ground, both hands pressed hard over the bleeding at my tracheotomy opening. Blood seeped through her fingers and dripped onto the white tile.The door burst open, and four ER nurses rushed in pushing a crash cart."Get the suction ready, clear the airway of blood. Open two IV lines and push a tiny ounce of epinephrine," Dr. Marsh ordered.A nurse pulled open a drawer on the cart and grabbed a portable suction device, feeding the tube into the opening at my throat. The machine switched on, pulling out a steady stream of dark red blood and fluid through the tubing.Another nurse cut open the sleeve of my hospital gown and set two IV lines into the veins of each arm, connecting them to saline an

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