Chapter 81 The hearing
The room was too bright. The kind of brightness that made it impossible to hide anything, not the dark circles under Sienna’s eyes, not the tremor in her hands.
The sign above the panel read Medical Review Board of London.
Five faces stared down at her from behind a long table, three doctors, a lawyer, and a woman from the ethics committee who didn’t even look up from her papers.
Sienna clasped her hands together to stop them from shaking. Her palms were cold, her heart louder than the ticking clock on the wall.
She’d faced patients with cold attitudes , emergencies that demanded calmness but this? This was worse.
One of the men cleared his throat. “Dr. Sienna Hale,” he began, his tone official and distant, “you’ve been accused of multiple breaches of confidentiality, including the alleged release of private medical information belonging to Mr. Dante Varon.”
The name made her chest ache. She swallowed hard. “I never.” she started, but her voice cracked. She tried again. “I never released anything. I would never betray a patient.”
Another board member leaned forward, tapping his pen. “We’ve received statements, recordings, and photographs suggesting a conflict of interest. Your relationship with Mr. Varon.”
“It was professional at first,” Sienna interrupted quietly. “And later, it became personal. But that has nothing to do with this. I did not leak anything.”
The woman at the center of the panel looked up at last. Her eyes were cool, unreadable. “Then how do you explain the files shown to the press? The medical reports bearing your signature?”
Sienna felt a lump rise in her throat. “They were stolen. I’ve been framed. Please, you have to believe me.”
The woman sighed. “We want to, Dr. Hale. But the evidence against you is strong.”
Strong. That word hit like a gavel.
Sienna wanted to scream that they were wrong. That there were people moving pieces she couldn’t see. That the truth was bigger than a few forged files and manipulated photos. But the board didn’t want the truth. They followed orders, they just wanted silence and closure of the case.
“Please,” she said softly, almost whispering now. “I’ve worked my whole life for this. My record, my reputation, that's all I have left.”
The older man on the left rubbed his temples. “We’ll deliberate on this matter. Please wait outside.”
Her mouth went dry. “Of course.”
She stood up, legs heavy, and walked out of the hearing room like someone walking away from her own shadow.
The hallway was quiet except for the faint hum of the air conditioner. Sienna sank into one of the plastic chairs outside, her mind blank. Her heart thudded once, twice, then slowed to something dull, the kind of ache that lived too deep to cry over.
She pressed her hands together, elbows on her knees, and stared at the floor. How did it come to this?
She’d spent years healing people and now she couldn’t even defend herself.
Everything she’d built, everything she’d believed in, had been stripped away piece by piece.
She didn’t even hear the footsteps until a familiar voice said softly, “Sienna?”
Her head jerked up. Luca stood before her, tall, serious with eyes full of worry.
For a second, she didn’t move. Then she blinked, the tears she’d been holding back spilling free. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard about the hearing.” He crouched beside her chair. “I had to come.”
She tried to smile but couldn’t. “You shouldn’t be here. They’ll twist it, and say I asked for help.”
“I don’t care what they say.” His tone was firm. “You shouldn’t be alone right now.”
Sienna looked at him and for the first time, saw the exhaustion in his eyes too. He’d been fighting battles of his own, she knew it. But she didn't know who and what he was fighting.
She opened her mouth to thank him but her phone buzzed on the seat beside her.
The sound cut through the silence like a blade. She picked it up, her fingers trembling.
A notification glowed on the screen.
Breaking News: Dante Varon Engaged to Isabelle Laurent.
Her world stopped.
She stared at the screen, not breathing.
The photo filled the screen, Dante and Isabelle, smiling, standing before a wall of roses, their hands intertwined. Isabelle’s head rested on his shoulder.
There were other headlines. “Varon Finds Love Again.” And in small letters below: “A love story reborn after heartbreak.”
Her hands went numb. The phone slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor.
“No.” The word left her mouth like air from a wound.
Luca caught her before she fell, his arm steady around her shoulders.
“Sienna,hey look at me.”
But she couldn’t. Her eyes stayed on the phone, on the man she once believed would never lie to her.
She remembered his words “You’re my peace.” Now he was smiling beside the woman who was destroying her.
Her chest tightened. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn't even think.
“Sienna,” Luca whispered, his voice low, steady. “Listen to me. This isn’t over.”
She shook her head weakly. “It’s already over.”
Her voice broke. “He believed her. He believed everything.”
Luca clenched his jaw. “Then we’ll make him see the truth.”
Sienna’s throat tightened. She wanted to thank him, but the words stuck. He didn’t need her thanks. He just stayed close, calm and grounding, the only solid thing in her crumbling world.
A few minutes passed in silence. Then Luca gestured toward the doors leading outside. “Come on,” he murmured. “Let’s get some air.”
They didn’t go far, they just sat in his car, parked a few meters from the entrance.
Rain clouds hung low over London, turning the sky a deep gray. The air smelled like metal and smoke.
Neither spoke.
Sienna leaned back in her seat, staring at her hands resting uselessly in her lap.Luca watched her quietly, not asking questions, not forcing words she couldn’t give.
She wanted to believe that silence could hold her together. But every time she closed her eyes, she saw the boardroom, the stares, the disbelief.
Her entire career was slipping away and with it, the last piece of the life she’d built before everything fell apart.
Luca broke the silence first. “They’re taking too long,” he said quietly. “That’s a good sign, maybe. It means they’re still deciding.”
She didn’t look up. “Or they’ve already decided and just don’t know how to say it.”
Her voice sounded small, almost distant.
Luca shifted in his seat, turning slightly toward her. “Sienna, whatever happens, this doesn’t define you. You know that, right?”
She gave a short, broken laugh. “Tell that to the medical board. Tell that to every hospital that’ll read my name after this.”
He didn’t answer. There wasn’t anything he could say to make her believe otherwise.
A soft knock came on Luca’s window.
A young clerk stood outside, clutching a file. He gave Sienna a polite, professional nod. “Dr. Hale, the board’s almost ready for you. You’ll be called in shortly.”
Sienna’s stomach tightened. “Thank you,” she murmured.
The clerk left.
Luca looked at her. “Are you ready?”
She didn’t answer right away. Her throat felt tight again. “No. But it doesn’t matter, does it?”
He gave her a small, reassuring smile, the kind that didn’t promise miracles, only presence. “Whatever happens in there, you’re not alone. You understand?”
She nodded faintly, not trusting her voice.
Then, a minute later a staff member waved from the entrance, Sienna drew in a slow breath and stepped out of the car.
Luca followed her inside.
Her phone buzzed again.
She flinched, heart jumping. For a moment, she thought it was Luca checking on her or maybe, impossibly, Dante. But why would Luca send her a text when he was behind her?
But the number wasn’t saved. Just an unknown string of digits.
The message was short.
“If you want to know what really happened to your father and brother, come alone.”
Her fingers froze around the phone.
Her mind went blank, then rushed with noise Clara, the drive, the photos, the secrets that had started this entire mess.Her father, her brother and the crash that claimed their lives.
The one thing no one ever wanted to talk about.
Her hands trembled.