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Rory moved their joined hands to his lap.
She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder as if it was too much for her to hold it up on her own.
If these people weren’t deeply grieving, Freddie would hang up his gold shield.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“I’m sorry to make a difficult time worse, but we have a few questions,” Freddie said.
“It’s fine,” Rory said. “We understand you have a job to do.”
“We heard that you and Marcel had a screaming fight in the office over his decision to cut back on his hours,” Freddie said.
“Yes, we did,” Rory said with a sigh. “I was furious with him for making a decision that affected all of us without even consulting with me or Oriana. Especially with the lawsuit court date coming up and the damage that was going to do to our practice. It was a lot all at once.”
“Were you surprised by the allegations of the women bringing the suit?” Freddie asked.
“I was shocked. Everyone was. Marcel was my mentor. He taught me everything I know about medicine and life. I looked up to him in every possible way. It was unfathomable to me that he could’ve done such a thing.”
“Did you believe the women?”
“At first, I thought it was bullshit, to be honest. I figured it had to be someone who hadn’t gotten the result she wanted exacting revenge on the doctor who failed to make her dream come true. But there were four of them. It’s hard to deny the truth when four people are saying the same thing.”
“Did you confront him about it?”
“I did,” Rory said. “He denied it, said it was a witch hunt by women whose procedures had failed—and he was right that all four of them had achieved a negative result when they accused him of inappropriate behavior. I’ll admit that I found his denial to be plausible at first, but the women were just so convincing. When I read the lawsuit, I became very certain they were telling the truth, and I told him so. He was furious with me, and said he deserved loyalty from me after everything he’d done for me. It was a terrible position for me to be in with my own reputation tied to his, our practice in grave jeopardy…”
“Rory was sick over it,” Brittany said. “He barely slept for a month. He was so torn over his great love and affection for Marcel and the revulsion over what he’d apparently done to vulnerable patients. Not to mention other odd things, such as money missing from the petty cash in the office, Marcel making off-color jokes that made everyone uncomfortable. He was acting so strangely.”
“You have to understand,” Rory said. “The three of us have devoted our professional careers to that practice. Oriana and I came there because of our tremendous respect for Marcel. That he could do this to those women and take us down with him is just…” He shook his head and blew out a deep breath.
“I’ve never been more upset or torn over what I should do and what I wanted to do in my life. I wanted to stand by Marcel. He was my best friend, my longtime mentor and business partner. Brit and I were close to his entire family. It was a terrible predicament. For the first time in my life, I went on medication for anxiety as my patients began to cancel appointments with me that they’d waited months for. Word had gotten out through the Facebook group that the women belonged to, and suddenly, our once booming practice was radioactive—for everyone but Marcel, that is. We were stunned that women were keeping their appointments with him because his reputation for producing results was unparalleled. Oriana and me, though, we were flooded with cancelations. Ironic, huh? We needed him to keep those appointments, to keep the money coming in so we could at least try to keep the practice open while we weathered this storm. And he thought that was a good time to cut back on his hours?”
Brittany put her arm around her husband. “It was awful for Rory and for me to see him suffering.”
“I just don’t understand why someone who had it all, who’d reached the pinnacle of his profession, would do something so stupid and ruin everything for himself and us. Oriana and I are forever tied to him. Everyone knows he was our mentor and boss.”
“Will people hold what he did against you?” Gonzo asked.
“They already are. They figure we must’ve known what he was capable of, but we didn’t. We were as shocked as anyone by the allegations. To us, he was a consummate professional, a dedicated doctor, a loving family man. And then he compounded it by cutting back on his hours right when the practice was floundering. People desperate for a baby wanted the guy with the proven track record of success, even if he was accused of unspeakable things. Once the criminal complaint fizzled, his calendar was fully booked again. We needed him to take those appointments and get things back on track. Instead, he decided to go part time without consulting with us.”
“What did he say when you confronted him?”
“That he had to do what was best for his family. I asked him what about Oriana’s family and mine? What about the hits we’d taken because of the accusations lodged against him? He said he couldn’t believe I’d throw that nonsense in his face when he was being unfairly accused. It was the most heated exchange I’d ever had with him. It left me feeling sick to my stomach because I realized then that he was only thinking of himself.”
“Was that out of character for him?” Freddie asked.
“Completely and totally. He was always so supportive of us that it came as a shock to both of us to hear him say he didn’t care about us. He only cared about himself and his family. I mean, he was the one who’d put us in this position. It was galling, to say the least, to have him come right out and say he wasn’t going to help us dig our way out of it.”
“That must’ve made you angry,” Gonzo said.
“The entire situation made me angry, but if your next question is whether I killed him and his family, I can save you from asking. I loved Marcel like a brother. Even after everything that happened, the love was still there. I wanted to help him find a way out of this lawsuit and get back to normal. I never could’ve harmed him, Liliana or the kids. I would’ve done anything to protect them.”
“Rory has been so upset about the changes in Marcel,” Brittany said. “None of it made any sense.”
“Was it possible he had mental health issues?” Gonzo asked.
“Oriana and I talked about that. It had crossed our minds, but if you’ve ever dealt with that, you know it’s difficult to confront someone with concerns about their mental health. That would surely explain a lot, like how he went from being a devoted husband, father and medical professional to preying on his patients. That will never make sense to me.”
