The Bribed Doctor
Chapter 07 - The Bribed Doctor
Ostrander's investigation, expanding over the following weeks, uncovered a detail that transformed the case from a single, desperate mother-in-law's misguided cruelty into something considerably more calculated and dangerous.
"We found the source of the sedative," Ostrander told Derek and Megan, during a follow-up meeting at the police station. "A family physician named Dr. Curtis Halloway, who apparently prescribed the medication under Gloria's name, then provided her with considerably more than her own legitimate dosage would ever require."
"Why would a doctor do that," Megan asked, still recovering physically though her mind had grown considerably sharper with each passing, medication-free week.
"Financial incentive, initially," Ostrander said. "Gloria paid him a monthly retainer, framed as a consulting fee for managing her own anxiety condition. Considerably larger than any legitimate treatment would justify."
"Did he know what she was actually doing with the medication," Derek asked.
"He claims he didn't ask," Ostrander said. "Which, given the volume of medication involved, strains credibility considerably. We're pursuing separate charges against him for prescription fraud and potential complicity, depending on what further investigation reveals about his actual knowledge."
Megan felt a specific, cold anger settle over her, understanding that an entire small network of complicity, a doctor willing to look away for money, had enabled months of her own quiet suffering to continue undetected.
"There's something else," Ostrander continued. "Dr. Halloway's records show Gloria specifically requested documentation of, quote, concerning behavioral patterns, unquote, in a patient she described only as her son's wife. She was building a paper trail, Megan, intending to use fabricated medical documentation to support a future custody claim."
"She was planning to use his records against me," Megan said slowly, "in court, to prove I was unfit."
"That appears to have been the plan," Ostrander confirmed. "Combined with the sedative's actual physical effects, she was constructing exactly the kind of evidence a family court might find compelling, if nobody ever discovered the actual cause behind your symptoms."
Derek sat with the full, calculated scope of his mother's plan, understanding now that this wasn't simply grief manifesting as poor judgment, but a deliberate, months-long strategy designed to eventually take his son away from the woman he loved.
"How close did she come," he asked quietly. "To actually succeeding."
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"Closer than either of you probably want to think about," Ostrander said honestly. "If Megan's symptoms had continued escalating without medical intervention, and if Dr. Halloway's fabricated documentation had made its way into a custody proceeding, the outcome could have been considerably different than what actually happened."
Megan reached for Derek's hand, both of them absorbing the specific, retroactive horror of understanding how close they'd come to losing everything, not through any real fault of their own, but through a calculated, patient campaign built entirely on someone else's unresolved grief.
