The hearing was held in the network's central boardroom, which is a long room with a long table and one wall of windows looking out at a parking structure I had come to know intimately over three months of night shifts.
I was asked to sit at the end of the table. Dr. Kader was two seats away. My father was not there, because I had asked him not to be, because I have spent my whole life learning that the worst thing you can do to a rich man's daughter is let people watch her use him.
Dr. Thorne sat opposite me with a legal pad and a lawyer. He looked calm. He had every reason to look calm. On his side of the table: a published protocol, a tenured appointment, a father-in-law who had funded this exact room.
On my side of the table: a folder, a CT tech, and a voice in a vent that I would n
