“Because Dr. Stone blamed her,” Maria hisses.
Sophia puts a hand on Maria’s arm. It’s a gesture she’s made for as long as I remember whenever Maria gets too worked up.
“She did what?” I stare at them, horrified.
A cold dread is already pooling in my chest. I try to ignore it, but on some level I know this is bad.
This is really, really bad.
Sophia’s voice is flat, her eyes hollow.
“She told the department I didn’t follow her instructions. That I deviated from protocol, and by doing that, I…” She breaks down.
“You didn’t,” I say immediately. “I know you didn’t.”
“I didn’t,” Sophia whispers. She looks so tired, so desperate, that my chest coils with worry.
With fury, too.
I’ve been here before.
I’ve fucking been here.
Maria’s hands curl into fists.
“Penelope Stone let Sophia take the fall just because she could.”
“How is that even possible?” I ask. “She was the attending surgeon. Isn’t the responsibility automatically hers?”
“If she says I disobeyed her, that’s what everyone’s going to believe.” Sophia lets out a long, shaking breath. “I’m nobody. She’s a—she’s a legend.”
“Nothing is impossible for people like Penelope Stone,” Maria seethes.
Something inside me shatters.
Maria is right. Penelopes of this world can crush good people like Sophia because society lets them. Old money weighs more than justice—I have scars to prove it. They might be invisible, but I carry them with me every single day.
The Stones are one of the oldest, wealthiest families in North Carolina.
More powerful even than the Rutherfords .
If Penelope Stone wants to destroy a life, she will destroy a life, the Hippocratic Oath be damned.
Families like theirs hold all the power. They don’t suffer the consequences, they deliver them.
“They’ll take away my license. I just know it. Then everything I’ve worked for is gone,” Sophia says, tears streaming down her face.
Maria pulls her best friend into a tight hug and lets her cry.
Bile rises to my throat as I watch them.
I think of Caspian—how proud he sounds when he talks about his sister, how much he respects her skills. Even after everything his family has done to him, Caspian loves her. When I told him about Sophia’s residency on our first date, he said she was in good hands.
Now those capable, miracle-performing hands have brushed Sophia aside like she’s nothing.
“We’re not letting this stand,” Maria says fiercely. She turns to me. “You can talk to Caspian. He’ll help.”
My chest feels tight. Unbearably so. He would help—if he believed me. But he won’t. Not in a million years. Not when it’s his sister.
