The Heiress Strikes Back novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Clinic

Hollis Family Clinic was a low brick building on the edge of Torrington.

A dentist was on one side of it and a tax preparer on the other.

Peter parked at the back and cut the engine.

"I could go in alone," he said.

"No."

"You're sure?"

"I was the one with the needle in my arm."

We went in together, and a bell rang over the door.

The waiting room was empty except for a woman at the desk in pale blue scrubs, with a stack of folders in front of her.

She looked up with her pleasant clinic face.

It went away the moment she saw me.

"Hello," I said. "I had blood drawn here on September ninth. My name is Miranda Marlow."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I can't discuss any patient."

"I'm the patient."

"Then you'll need to put it in writing."

"I don't have any paper," I said. "I've never had any."

"Mrs. Thornley brought me in. You drew four vials from my left arm, and you told me I had good veins."

The nurse swallowed.

She looked at Peter, at the jacket with the medic's patch on the shoulder.

"He's with me," I said. "He isn't here to make trouble."

"I'm here because she asked me to be," said Peter. "And because I would like to know what you wrote on the lab form."

"I don't know what you mean."

"The ones you sent to Northeast Genetics. The name on the tube."

She started to stack folders that were already stacked.

"I have a daughter in college," she said, in a low voice.

"I'm sure she's wonderful," I said.

"Mrs. Thornley has been very generous."

"Has she."

"For years. The tuition. She knew about my husband's illness."

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