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Both men were her senior by ten years.
Braniff readjusted his tie and reading glasses. “This information, concerning your… um, questionable habits, have been confirmed in a sworn affidavit by a Dr. Hillsboro.”
Okay now,thatwas a direct hit.
Birdie’s heart sank.
“He asserts, and has agreed to testify in court, that you have approached him on a number of occasions demanding prescriptions for painkillers with threats to destroy his reputation if he were to refuse.”
Tilting her head to the side, she said, “I’m not an attorney but I do believe he’s violated HIPPA laws by sharing medical information without my consent.”
Braniff reached for a document sitting off to the side and turned it to face her. “Is this not the consent form you signed in early April, Mrs. Shepherd?”
Early April. That was when Marshall’s health began to decline at an alarming rate and Dr. Hillsboro had handed her a stack of documents to sign. Told her they were standard healthcare forms required to authorize at-home care and to facilitate communications with his other doctors.
“Hillsboro told you I had threatened him?”
“That’s correct. He had the foresight to document the dates and some of the more disturbing dialogue, specifically the threats to his livelihood.”
She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes at the anemic man sitting on the other side of the high-gloss ornate desk, wearing spectacles and sweating like a whore in church.
“The threats and my alleged addictions are falsehoods, Mr. Braniff, but I think you already know that.” She crossed her legs, as three sets of eyes followed her movement. “And for the record, it’s my stepsons who own the rights to destroying reputations in this family.”
The attorney pulled at his collar, avoiding her glare and peering down at another document. “He also states you offered sexual favors in return for said prescriptions.”
Oh for the love of…
“Can we wrap this up?” she sat on the edge of her seat, losing patience and interest in a flock of fire-breathing sheep. “I think we all know why we’re here. To find a way to extort the money Marshall left me in his will,” she clarified unnecessarily.
They stared at her, supposedly unwilling to divert from the finely tuned script. Braniff had the decency to appear as if he were about to lose his lunch, while her stepsons maintained a bored veneer.
“Fine,” she said with a sigh. “I assume you have records showing where I procured said drugs with the ill-gotten prescriptions?”
Braniff, cleared his throat, again. “Dr. Hillsboro maintains he denied you the scripts, despite the ongoing threats... and seduction attempts.”
“Of course. Such integrity. A true bastion of honor, that one.” Despite her effort to appear irreverent, that last bit of information concerning the good doctor was like a butcher knife jab to the heart.
Dr. Hillsboro, as his father before him, had been the Shepherds’ family doctor for decades and had begun making house calls a year ago, shortly after Marshall had been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
It was Dr. Hillsboro who had consoled her after sharing Marshall’s diagnosis and prognosis. It was Hillsboro who had assured her that he would do everything possible to ensure her husband was comfortable and free from pain.
Jesus, his wife, Jocelyn, came to their house to say her goodbyes the week Marshall passed away.
Birdie swallowed, attempting to appear unmoved, her imagination running wild wondering what exactly the good doctor had dripping from the IV bags and into Marshall’s dilapidated veins.
Hell, did he even have cancer?
She felt light-headed, her chest caving in. She should have paid closer attention. Asked more questions. She should have protected Marshall the same way he would have protected her.
Prior to today’s meeting, she naïvely assumed nothing would surprise her. Not after the last couple of weeks of being repeatedly blindsided and sideswiped at every turn.
Certainly not after the board of directors of the real estate company she had founded had unanimously voted to remove her as CEO of her own damned company.
After reading her board’s allegations against her, it didn’t take a super sleuth to determine Errol, Flynn, and their certifiable mother, had launched a sizable smear campaign to bring her down.
She hired a lawyer to fight the termination and dismal severance package they offered, which was nothing short of criminal. A package she had mistakenly agreed to negotiate during confidential arbitration proceedings.
She did so to keep it as quiet as possible and to protect Mia, her fourteen-year-old daughter. She had been through enough, mourning the only father she had ever known.
