Chapter 6: The Name on the Screen
Serena crossed the room in four steps and turned her phone face-down before anyone could read the screen.
But Rosa had been standing near the armchair.
Rosa had seen the name.
She didn't say anything immediately.
She waited until Serena was back beside Paul Greer, and then she walked quietly to Victor and leaned close.
"The name on her phone," Rosa said, just above a whisper.
"It said Dr.
Harlan."
Victor looked at her.
"Say that again."
"Dr.
Harlan.
That's what it said."
Victor turned to Daniel.
Something had shifted in his expression — not anger, not yet.
Something colder.
"Dr.
Harlan," he said.
"Owen Harlan."
Daniel looked up.
"You know him?"
"He was Ethan's pediatrician.
I replaced him eight months ago after he missed a diagnosis I considered serious.
A locum caught it on a follow-up." Victor paused.
"Serena recommended him originally.
She also argued against replacing him."
The room absorbed that.
Lily was the first to speak.
"Eight months ago.
That's two months before she moved in."
Nobody said it out loud.
They didn't have to.
Daniel turned to Victor.
"Do you have documentation of the original missed diagnosis?"
"My personal physician has the records.
I can have them within the hour."
"Get them."
Victor stepped into the hallway to make the call.
Serena watched him go.
Then she turned to Daniel, and the warmth was completely gone now.
"You're building a case out of coincidences," she said.
"A name on a phone.
A doctor I happened to know.
That's nothing."
"It's a thread," Daniel said.
"Threads have a way of pulling."
"I want this stopped." She looked at Paul Greer.
"Tell him."
Paul Greer was quiet for a moment.
Then he said, carefully: "Serena.
I need you to tell me something, and I need the truth."
She looked at him.
"Did you have a prior relationship with Owen Harlan before you met Victor Blackwood?"
The silence stretched.
"That's not relevant," she said.
"It is if the relationship continued after you moved into this house."
Another silence.
Longer.
"Paul—"
"Did it continue?"
Serena pressed her lips together.
She looked at the floor.
She looked at the phone in her hand.
Then she said: "He's a friend."
"A friend who is texting you at ten-thirty at night while you are in the middle of a legal situation involving the child he once treated."
She said nothing.
Paul Greer picked up his own briefcase.
He set it on the table and opened it.
He pulled out a single sheet of paper and placed it in front of her.
"This is a conflict-of-interest disclosure," he said.
"I need you to read it before we go any further, because if what I'm beginning to suspect is accurate, I cannot continue to represent you."
Serena stared at the paper.
"You're my attorney."
"I am.
And my obligation to you requires me to tell you that if Dr.
Harlan was involved in any deliberate mismanagement of Ethan Blackwood's medical care, and if you had prior knowledge of that, then what we are discussing tonight is no longer a family dispute."
The paper sat between them on the table.
Serena didn't pick it up.
Victor came back into the room.
He looked at Daniel.
"Records are being sent now.
My physician says the original diagnosis Harlan missed was a hairline fracture in Ethan's left wrist." He stopped.
"Ethan was nine months old."
Lily made a sound.
She pressed her hand over her mouth.
Rosa sat down.
Victor looked at Serena.
His voice was very quiet.
"Serena.
When did you first meet Owen Harlan?"
She didn't answer.
"Serena."
Her phone buzzed again on the table where she'd set it down.
May you like
This time, nobody moved toward it.
This time, Victor reached it first.
