MY HUSBAND COLLAPSED AT HER APARTMENT—THEN I REVEALED MY REAL PROFESSION
PART 2
Nobody spoke.
Lauren stared at me as though I had suddenly become a completely different person.
Victor bent down and picked up the clipboard.
“You’re a doctor?”
I nodded.
“Emergency medicine.”
Eleanor looked at me in disbelief.
“But Adrian told us you stopped practicing years ago.”
“I did.”
I looked toward the hospital bed.
“For one year.”
Lauren’s expression changed.
“Why?”
I looked directly at her.
“Because I was caring for my husband.”
Her face went pale.
“And now he’s here,” I continued, “after collapsing inside your apartment at three in the morning.”
Lauren immediately looked away.
Victor stepped toward me.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying nobody should rush into surgery based on incomplete information.”
I turned toward the attending physician.
“Doctor, please repeat the electrolytes and order an ECG immediately. Severe hypokalemia can produce dangerous arrhythmias.”
The physician nodded.
“We already have another sample running.”
“Good.”
I looked at Adrian’s monitor.
His heart rhythm was unstable.
“But there’s something else.”
The room became quiet again.
I pointed toward the preliminary chart.
“His potassium is dangerously low, but there’s no obvious explanation for it.”
Victor frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means we need to know what he took.”
Lauren suddenly spoke.
“He didn’t take anything.”
I looked at her.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then why was he at your apartment?”
She froze.
Victor turned toward her.
“Lauren?”
“I already explained. We were working late.”
“At three in the morning?”
“It was a project deadline.”
I stared at her.
“Then you won’t mind answering one more question.”
She swallowed.
“What?”
“What did Adrian drink?”
Lauren’s eyes flickered toward Eleanor.
“Coffee.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
I looked at the nurse.
“Check his toxicology screen.”
The nurse nodded and left.
A few minutes later, the attending physician returned.
“Maya, we have something.”
Everyone turned.
“There are traces of a prescription diuretic in his system.”
Victor’s face tightened.
“Diuretic?”
I nodded slowly.
“Some diuretics can cause severe potassium loss.”
Lauren immediately shook her head.
“That wasn’t mine.”
Nobody had accused her.
But she had just defended herself.
I noticed.
“So you knew there was a possibility we’d find medication?”
Lauren’s lips parted.
“No.”
Victor stared at her.
“You said you didn’t know what he took.”
“I don’t!”
Eleanor suddenly grabbed my arm.
“Maya, please. Forget everything else. Just save my son.”
I looked at her.
“I am trying to.”
Then the doctor interrupted.
“We have another problem.”
“What?”
“His blood pressure is dropping.”
The medical team moved quickly around Adrian’s bed.
I stepped back.
“Start potassium replacement carefully. Continuous cardiac monitoring.”
The physician nodded.
Then Adrian suddenly opened his eyes.
His lips moved.
I leaned closer.
“Adrian?”
His voice was barely audible.
“Don’t…”
I lowered my head.
“Don’t what?”
His eyes moved toward Lauren.
“Trust…”
Then his eyes closed again.
Lauren took a step backward.
Victor noticed.
“What did he say?”
I stood up.
“He said one word.”
“What?”
I looked directly at Lauren.
“Trust.”
She immediately began crying.
“This is ridiculous. I love Adrian.”
Victor stared at her.
“Then why were you with him at three in the morning?”
Silence.
Lauren’s tears stopped.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then she whispered,
“Because he was going to leave Maya.”
Eleanor looked shocked.
“You knew about the marriage?”
Lauren nodded.
“He told me they were practically finished.”
I looked at Adrian.
“So that’s what you’ve been telling her?”
No response.
Then the nurse returned with a sealed evidence bag.
“We found this in his jacket.”
Inside was a small prescription bottle.
The label had been scratched off.
Victor stared at it.
“Where did that come from?”
The nurse shook her head.
“We don’t know.”
I looked at Lauren.
She was staring at the bottle.
And that told me more than words could.
“Call hospital security.”
Lauren stepped backward.
“You can’t do this.”
I remained calm.
“No one is accusing you of anything.”
“Then why security?”
“Because my husband nearly died.”
She looked at me.
“And because someone may have given him something that caused this.”
The room fell silent.
Then Victor turned toward Lauren.
“Where is your apartment?”
She didn’t answer.
Victor’s face hardened.
“Where is it?”
Finally, she whispered the address.
I looked toward the attending physician.
“Please keep Adrian here until the police arrive.”
Eleanor stared at me.
“The police?”
“Yes.”
Then my phone buzzed.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph.
Adrian was sitting at Lauren’s kitchen table.
A glass was directly in front of him.
Underneath the photograph was a message:
“You should ask Lauren what was in that glass.”
I stared at the screen.
Then I looked at Lauren.
Her face had completely lost its color.
And for the first time that night, I realized the stroke might not have been the real emergency.
Someone had been trying to make sure Adrian never woke up.