Lies In The Private Clinic

Evelyn clutched her pearl necklace, her knuckles turning bone white against her tailored ochre dress.

Evelyn: Mark, listen to reason. You cannot believe what you think you saw.

Mark: I saw your foot raised above my pregnant wife's stomach, mother!

Evelyn: She provoked me! She insulted the family name!

Mark: She is unconscious! She has been sick for three days!

Mark knelt down beside Claire, his hand gently touching her pale, cold cheek.

Mark: Claire? Baby, can you hear me? Wake up, please.

Claire groaned faintly, her eyelids fluttering, but she couldn't open them.

Evelyn: She is faking it, Mark. She has been faking this entire illness just to gain your sympathy.

Mark: Shut your mouth! Just shut up!

He pulled out his phone, his thumb tapping the screen with furious precision.

Evelyn: Who are you calling? Mark, put that phone away right now!

Mark: I'm calling the police.

Evelyn: You wouldn't dare disgrace our family in public!

Mark: You tried to murder my unborn child!

Evelyn: I am your mother! Everything I do is to protect your trust fund and the company estate!

Mark: I don't give a damn about the money!

Mark: Operator? Send police units to Room Four at the Westside Medical Clinic immediately!

Evelyn: Hang up that phone, Mark!

Mark: We need emergency medical staff right now! My wife is unresponsive on the floor!

He tossed the phone onto the counter and turned back toward his mother, his jaw locked tight.

Mark: You told me Claire called you for help. You told me she asked you to bring her here.

Evelyn: She did! She begged me to bring her to a private facility.

Mark: Claire has her own doctor at Saint Jude's. Why would she come to this secluded private clinic?

Evelyn: Because she didn't want anyone to see how weak she was!

Mark: No. You brought her here because this clinic belongs to your old college friend.

Evelyn flinched, stepping back until her back hit the cold steel of the examination table.

Evelyn: Don't speak nonsense. I brought her here to receive the best possible private care.

Mark: You locked the door from the inside.

Evelyn: For privacy!

Mark: With shattered glass on the floor and my wife bleeding from her temple?

Claire moved her arm, her fingers brushing against the cold linoleum.

Claire: Mark...?

Mark: I'm here, sweetheart. Don't move. Don't try to get up.

Claire: The tea... she gave me the tea...

Evelyn: She is hallucinating! Pay no attention to her rambling!

Mark: What tea, Claire? Tell me what she gave you.

Claire: She came to the house... poured a cup... told me it would calm my nausea...

Evelyn: It was herbal tea! Just chamomile!

Claire: My stomach started burning ten minutes later... then everything went black...

Mark looked up at Evelyn, his eyes burning with absolute disgust and betrayal.

Mark: You poisoned her.

Evelyn: That is an outrageous accusation! I gave her natural tea!

Mark: We are having her blood tested the second the doctors enter this room.

Evelyn: You will regret this day, Mark. You are destroying your own bloodline for an outsider!

Mark: The only poison in this bloodline is standing in front of me.

Footsteps echoed sharply outside the door, followed by the heavy clatter of duty belts and sirens wailing in the distance.