Chapter 4 - Dr. Marlowe
Victor Marlowe died five years ago.
Grant remembered him as brilliant, cold and reassuring.
“You may never walk again.”
Sentence Grant had carried twelve years.
Selena entered Grant’s life three years after Victor died.
At charity auction.
She claimed they had never met before.
Lie.
Old hospital visitor log showed seventeen-year-old Selena visited father during Grant’s rehabilitation.
Grant did not remember her.
Why would she?
Victor often brought family through staff entrance.
Could be ordinary.
Then Rachel’s papers revealed she had investigated Victor before death.
Not because she suspected intentional paralysis.
Because Victor’s medical notes contradicted later records.
Month four:
Strong voluntary contraction right quadriceps.
Month seven:
Assisted standing 11 seconds.
Month nine:
Potential for limited ambulation with continued therapy.
Grant had forgotten.
Trauma medication.
Pain.
Years.
But yes.
He had stood in parallel bars once.
Then later record:
Sudden regression.
What happened between months nine and ten?
Medication change.
Victor prescribed experimental combination for severe muscle spasticity and neuropathic pain.
Legal drugs.
Heavy doses.
Grant became weaker.
Doctors attributed to neurological progression.
Rachel questioned years later.
Why continue medications after spasticity decreased?
Victor did.
For almost three years.
Then another neurologist inherited regimen and slowly changed it.
But by then Grant’s muscles had severely deconditioned.
Still, that did not explain twelve years.
Then Dr. Bell noticed one drug:
High-dose baclofen.
It can cause weakness.
Appropriate in some spinal patients.
Not evidence of wrongdoing.
But Victor’s doses were unusually aggressive.
Could poor judgment, not conspiracy.
Grant refused jumping to conclusions.
Then Rachel’s diary:
Victor didn't cripple Grant. Stop thinking like that.
Good.
She had reached same conclusion.
Next:
But someone wanted him to believe improvement was dangerous.
Who?
Rachel described Grant attempting standing at home year two.
He fell.
Afterward received anonymous envelope containing MRI image and warning:
Next fall could leave you permanently paralyzed from waist down.
Grant remembered.
He believed hospital sent it.
Hospital denied.
Rachel discovered years later.
Who sent it?
Then Selena requested meeting through attorney.
Grant refused at first.
Finally accepted remotely.
“Why did you inject Emma?”
Selena cried.
“She found something.”
“What?”
“A vial.”
“G.H.-12?”
Selena’s face changed.
There.
“You know it.”
“No.”
“Your face does.”
Selena whispered:
“My father kept vials like that.”
“What were they?”
“Control samples.”
“For what?”
May you like
She looked directly at Grant.
“For the treatment that made your legs worse.”
