"Out," Martin said to Tucker and Pete, his soft demeanor gone. He wanted to speak to Elizabeth alone.
Pete scowled at him. "You’re angry at the wrong people."
“What's wrong?" Elizabeth started to stand.
"I'm sorry, Sunshine." He sat beside her.
She rested her head against his chest. "It's about my father, isn't it, Marty? What did he do now?"
Martin wrapped his arms around her. It was the only thing he could do to protect her, and it wouldn't be enough. "Sunshine, I need to ask you some questions."
"Please, you’re scaring me. Ask." Elizabeth tried to push back, but he held her tighter.
"I told you about the background check. We found a bank account that was opened just before your mom died."
Her body burrowed into his. "What bank account?"
"It’s an account with $250,000 at Silverton Financial, opened on January second."
She pushed hard against him. "I don't bank there, Marty. I would never open an account there. Silverton Financial bought Lewis's family's bank. I swear it."
"I believe you. I'm sorry. Someone wants it to look like you took a payoff."
"Payoff? For what?" She struggled to break free from his embrace.
"I need to ask some more." She nodded against him. "How do you write prescriptions?"
"I don't. All my scripts are sent via electronic transfer or printed from a terminal on the unit or the clinic. Inpatient, seldom. At discharge, the residents do it as part of their training."
"All of them? You never use a prescription pad?"
"Why are you asking?" He didn't answer. "I use an app on my phone; it goes directly to the pharmacies," her pitch rose.
"Where do you keep your pads?"
"In a safe in the floor of the guest room. Marty, tell me why you’re asking this?"
"We found a bunch of handwritten prescriptions from the past eighteen months."
Elizabeth froze. "A payoff for selling prescriptions? When I got here, I stayed the first month at my parents’ until I found my house. When I left, I had my license and prescriptions changed to my new address. I took one pad out of the first box in case of a computer failure but never opened the second. That pad is locked in my office." She started to shake. "Oh God, my old scripts from Hopkins. They were in Daddy's safe. I need to find them and destroy them. Oh god."
"Shh. Shh. We will.” His breath hitched.
"Only if you tell me what's happening. Remember, no secrets."
"I'm so sorry, Sunshine." Martin told her almost everything, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell her that her father said he would be better off if she died.
"The prescriptions—they will destroy my career… Momma's letter? What benefit does it give him, other than to hurt me more? And you? You were defending me, but..." Elizabeth's cheeks turned blotchy.
"I am so sorry I lost my cool, Sunshine. Please forgive me?"
Elizabeth wiped away her tears. "Why does he hate me so?"
"I can't answer that other than to say you did nothing wrong." Martin held her.
Tucker and Pete paced outside her room, where Mike and Zach joined them. "He threw us out. I swear if he upsets her, he’ll need a hospital bed again." Pete's arms crossed over his chest.
"No one is screaming; what is he telling her? Martin never behaves like that." Tucker's soft tone disappeared.
