Dr. Patel’s termination happened quietly, without confrontation, legal handling the entire process with the same careful precision they’d used to remove Damien and Rachel weeks earlier. I found myself grateful for the efficiency of it, exhausted by now with the emotional toll of every previous betrayal we’d survived.
But watching Caleb process the news hit differently than I expected. He’d vouched for her, trusted his own professional judgment enough to hand her Micah’s care, and the betrayal seemed to sit heavier on him than it did on the rest of us, some genuine self-doubt creeping into his usually confident clinical assessments.
I found him in his study that evening, staring at nothing in particular, a glass of scotch he hadn’t touched sitting on the desk beside him.
“You couldn’t ha
