Isabelle’s hands were steady, but her mind raced through every possibility as she waited in the office, the empty file slot staring back at her like an accusation. Marcus arrived less than three minutes later, his surgical coat still on, his expression a mixture of panic and something she hadn’t seen from him before: fear. “You need to leave,” he said quietly, closing the office door behind him. “This isn’t what you think.”

“Then tell me what it is,” Isabelle said, crossing her arms. “Because a woman signed in as your wife, walked out with your badge, and took a file about a patient named L. Marsh. So explain it to me, Marcus, because right now I’m filling in the blanks myself.” Marcus sat down heavily in his desk chair, running a hand through his hair, the composed chief surgeon persona completely gone.

He explained, haltingly, that Isabelle Marsh had been a patient eight months earlier, a botched surgery he’d performed during a period he later admitted had been affected by exhaustion and poor judgment. Rather than reporting the error through proper channels, he’d quietly settled with her family, an arrangement that technically violated hospital policy and put his license at risk if discovered. The woman who’d signed in as “Mrs. Whitfield” was Isabelle Marsh’s sister, attempting to gather evidence to reopen the case and expose the cover-up.

“You lied to a settlement, Marcus. You let a woman impersonate me to walk through this hospital because you were too afraid to report your own mistake.” Isabelle’s voice stayed level, though her chest felt tight with a betrayal that went far beyond a stolen badge. “I’m not protecting you from this. Not anymore.” Marcus reached for her hand, but she stepped back, the paper bag with his lunch still sitting untouched on the reception desk downstairs.

Within days, hospital administration launched a formal investigation after the Marsh family’s attorney contacted them directly, armed with the very documentation Marcus had tried to keep buried. Marcus’s license was suspended pending review, and Isabelle, finally seeing the full shape of the man she’d been married to for twelve years, filed for divorce before the investigation even concluded. She never went back to St. Catherine’s again, but she often thought about the stranger who’d worn her name for ten minutes, unknowingly handing her the truth her husband never intended for her to find.