Chapter 15 - Claire Goes Back to Work
Claire returned to medicine fourteen months after I found her.
Her first day terrified her.
She stood outside the hospital entrance for ten minutes.
Then walked inside.
She no longer worked under Rebecca.
Rebecca had lost her medical position and faced criminal consequences of her own.
The hospital conducted an internal review of how false records had been created.
Policies changed.
Access logs were strengthened.
Claire became involved in a committee focused on protecting medical identities and confidential records.
But she refused to let administrative work replace medicine.
She wanted patients.
She wanted ordinary problems.
Sore throats.
Blood pressure.
Recovery plans.
Human things.
One evening she called me.
My heart still jumped whenever her name appeared on my phone.
“Mom?”
“What happened?”
She laughed.
“Nothing happened.”
I closed my eyes.
That sentence was beautiful.
“Want dinner?”
“Absolutely.”
“What are you making?”
“I was thinking pasta.”
“Your pasta is terrible.”
“Then don’t come.”
“I’ll be there in twenty.”
Before hanging up, she sent me something.
A blue heart.
I stared at it.
For years, the blue heart had meant:
I’m okay. Give me space.
Now it meant something simpler.
May you like
I’m here.
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