Beatrice laughed, harsh and bitter. “Manipulated papers!”

Valerie raised her left wrist, turning the bracelet to the cameras. “This was logged on the intake chart as personal property removed from the stable patient.

Then it vanished from the record. My father gave me this bracelet for my fifteenth birthday. Beatrice told him it was destroyed in the fire.”

Alexander spoke into the microphones. “I confirm that bracelet belonged to my daughter. It was never returned to me. I never authorized its disposal.”

Then Marcus played the audio of Nurse Teresa’s deposition. Her recorded voice shook, but the words were devastatingly clear: an administrative directive had ordered the chart swap; the girl who woke asking for her father was not named Maya; she had whispered the name Alexander through her sedatives, and staff were told to ignore her questions.

Beatrice stood, her face contorted. “That woman was paid off!”