Confidential

Chapter Five

The office felt smaller than Sari remembered. The blinds were half-drawn, sunlight spilling weakly across the framed diplomas, the family photos, the plaque that still read: Howard Women’s & Children’s Center - For the Health of Every Family.

The words made her stomach twist.

Her father sat behind his desk, hands clasped tightly, eyes weary and older than she’d ever seen them. Sylvia stood by the window, looking like she hadn’t slept in days.

Sari didn’t sit right away. She crossed her arms, eyes moving between them. “I flew halfway across the world. So someone start explaining.”

Arthur exhaled, rubbing his temples. “It started years ago. Two years after you left for London.”

That sentence alone hit like a weight.

He continued, voice low. “The clinic wasn’t doing well. Private healthcare became competitive, and we weren’t getting enough patients to sustain operations. We were losing clients to bigger hospitals with better marketing. The bills kept piling up, rent, staff salaries, equipment. We were on the brink of closing.”

Sari frowned. “You should’ve told me. I could have—”

“You were nineteen,” he interrupted gently. “You had your own battles to fight. We didn’t want to drag you into ours.”

She bit down on her frustration. “So what did you do?”

Silence.

Then Sylvia spoke, hesitant but clear. “We started accepting private clients. People who wanted complete discretion.”

Sari’s eyes narrowed. “Define discretion.”

Sylvia glanced at Arthur, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze. “High-profile clients,” she said carefully. “Businessmen, politicians, athletes. Men who wanted to make sure their... associations were healthy and taken care of.”

Sari caught the subtle pause, the polite euphemism. Associations. Of course. Their sidepieces.

She blinked, as if making sure she’d heard correctly. “Their situations?”

Sylvia hesitated before answering. “They brought in women. Not their wives, their mistresses, girlfriends. They wanted them to have regular checkups, contraceptives, STD screenings.”

Sari stared at her, disbelief flooding every line of her face. “You turned the clinic into a private medical service for cheating men?”

Arthur flinched. “Sari—”

“Don’t,” she cut in, voice sharp. “You mean to tell me the clinic that Mom and you built, a clinic meant to empower women and protect families, has turned into some secret concierge for men too rich to buy condoms?”

Sylvia winced. “It’s not that simple.”

“It’s exactly that simple,” Sari snapped. “You took something sacred and sold it to the highest bidder.”

Arthur’s voice trembled. “You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to compromise what we built? We had no choice. The clinic was dying. The private clients kept it alive. Their retainers, that’s what paid the staff, the utilities, the other doctors’ salary. Without them, this clinic would have shut down seven years ago.”

Sari went quiet for a long moment.

Her voice, when it came, was cold. “So you traded ethics for rent money.”

Sylvia spoke softly, trying to hold her ground. “You weren’t here when the debts started piling up. We were desperate. We didn’t take pleasure in it, Sari. But without those men, there’d be no Howard Clinic left for you to come home to.”

Sari turned away, staring at the framed photograph on the wall, her mother, smiling in her white coat, arm linked with her father’s. They looked so proud. So certain of the good they were doing.

She felt something hollow open inside her.

“You’ve turned her life’s work into a cover-up operation,” she said quietly. “Do you even hear yourselves?”

Arthur’s face crumpled with guilt. “Your mother would have understood. She’d have done what she had to do to keep it alive.”

“No,” Sari said flatly. “She wouldn’t have. She would’ve found another way. An honest one.”

Sylvia’s voice broke slightly. “If we hadn’t done it, we’d all be out on the street by now. You don’t understand what it’s like to build something for decades and watch it fall apart.”

Sari met her gaze. “You’re right. I don’t understand how you could betray everything you stood for to save a building. You didn’t save the clinic. You buried its soul.”

No one spoke.

The air conditioner hummed faintly, filling the silence.

Finally, Sari stepped closer to the desk, her tone quieter but laced with steel. “I’ll handle Elizalde. I’ll deal with the lawsuit. But once this is over, every file, every deal made under the table, they’re gone. If this clinic survives, it will be because it deserves to.”

Arthur opened his mouth to speak, but she stopped him with a look.

“I’m not angry because you struggled,” she said softly. “I’m angry because when things got hard, you forgot who you were. You forgot who Mom was.”

Then she turned, opened the door, and stepped out.

The hallway outside smelled faintly of disinfectant and orchids, exactly like it had when she was a kid. But this time, it didn’t smell like home. It smelled like a secret she didn’t want to be part of.