Chapter 5 - Claire’s First Lie
Claire finally agreed to speak.
She did not deny the injections.
She did not deny deleting therapy access.
But she denied trying to steal Ethan’s company.
“I thought I was protecting him.”
Ethan stared through interview-room glass.
Maya asked:
“From what?”
“From E-40.”
“That project ended three years ago.”
“That’s what we all thought.”
Claire said she recognized Marcus Hale’s wheelchair the day it arrived.
The dent on rear frame.
The old sensor mount.
The scratched number 17.
She should have told Ethan immediately.
Instead, she panicked.
Three days later she received an anonymous message:
YOU REMEMBER SEVENTEEN.
DON’T LET THEM DO IT AGAIN.
Attached were screenshots showing Ethan’s chair transmitting weight-bearing data.
Claire believed someone inside Mercer Technologies had restarted E-40 using Ethan as an unknowing patient.
She attached an additional logger to capture independent data.
Then she contacted Jonathan Pike.
Jonathan quietly began board audit.
Why not tell Ethan?
Claire said they feared whoever was monitoring him would destroy evidence.
“That might explain the sensors,” Maya said. “It doesn’t explain the drugs.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“In March, Ethan started getting stronger.”
“And?”
“The data changed.”
“That’s what recovery looks like.”
“I know.”
“So what did you do?”
Claire looked down.
“I continued an old muscle relaxant.”
“Without authorization.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted stable baseline until Jonathan’s audit was finished.”
Maya stared.
“You intentionally kept a recovering man weak so your evidence would look cleaner.”
Claire began crying.
“I told myself it was temporary.”
“How temporary?”
“September eighteenth.”
There it was.
Jonathan’s audit deadline coincided with Ethan’s incapacity deadline.
Claire planned stop after audit captured nine months of data.
Then Ethan would begin aggressive rehabilitation.
That was what she meant by:
“You weren’t supposed to walk yet.”
Not never.
Yet.
Still monstrous.
Then Maya asked:
“Who supplied orange syringes?”
Claire hesitated.
“A doctor.”
“Name.”
Silence.
“Claire.”
“Samuel Keene.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Claire had known.
Samuel contacted her two weeks after Ethan’s accident.
He claimed he had discovered someone using the old E-40 system again and wanted help proving it.
He supplied preloaded syringes, saying they contained Ethan’s existing medication in standardized formulation for data consistency.
Claire knew that alone was medically improper.
She used them anyway.
She said Samuel never told her he planned to pitch a new system to Mercer Technologies.
She believed he was helping expose misconduct.
Maya asked:
“Did Samuel ever tell you Ethan needed to stay in the chair?”
Claire nodded.
“What exactly?”
“He said if Ethan stood before September eighteenth, whoever restarted E-40 would erase everything.”
“And you believed him?”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Claire’s face collapsed.
“By May, I knew something was wrong.”
“Why continue?”
“Because by then I knew I had already hurt him.”
May you like
Claire had not become trapped in someone else’s scheme.
She had become trapped by her own fear of being exposed.
