Stepping-Stone for Mia novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: The Leak
"Dr. Harwood? Are you still there?"
"I'm here."
Tim was sitting up now, the sheet around his waist, watching my face.
"Do you have a comment?" the reporter said.
I looked at the scar on my arm.
I thought about Bennett's fingers digging into it at the coat check.
"Yes," I said. "I didn't send you that video. Kelly Beal's husband gave her phone to the Board of Physicians yesterday. If you want to know whose face it is, ask him. He's the only one with the right to tell you."
"Can I have his number?"
"No. But his name is Ronnie, and he's in Dundalk, and he answers his phone."
I hung up.
Tim held out his arm, and I lay back down against him.
"Noon," I said.
"Noon," he said. "That gives us five hours."
"For what?"
He pulled the blanket over both our heads.
The story went up at 12:01.
By one, it was on every Baltimore station.
By three, it was everywhere else.
Ten seconds of a phone screen, filmed shakily from a few feet away.
A pink scrub cap. A blue-lit face. "Give me ten minutes."
The Sun ran it next to Kelly's last photo before the live, laughing in the car seat.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Stepping-Stone for Mia are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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