The hearing room was full. No seats remained. No silence either.
Reporters packed the rear row. Medical students lined the walls. Nurses from both Boston Memorial and Harborview stood in scrubs, arms folded, watching history unfold.
Aiden sat at the long table in a navy suit, Maya beside him, fingers laced over her legal pad.
Across from them, the panel of six ethics board members looked weary, but alert.
Dr. Felix Chong cleared his throat. “We will now hear final expert testimony before deliberation."
Maya stood. “The defense calls Dr. Zahra Patel."
Zahra strode forward, lab coat exchanged for a pressed blazer, but her voice still carried the same surgical precision.
“I'm the lead developer of the polymer heart," she began. “And I want the board to understand—Dr. Stone's decision d
