The clinic had closed eleven years ago.
This was the first fact that mattered. A private medical facility that no longer existed as an operational entity presented specific challenges to anyone trying to access its historical records, which were either destroyed, archived under the dissolved company’s administrator, or in the possession of parties who were themselves difficult to identify.
Diana knew which.
She called me the morning I texted her about Nadia’s apparent knowledge of the records, her voice carrying the particular alertness of someone who has been expecting a contingency.
“I have the records,” Diana said. “Your mother sent them to me before the procedure. She wanted someone to have them in case anything went wrong. She said it in a way that meant she half knew something mi
