Pay attention to the woman walking into the fourth floor supply closet at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Her name is Celestina Batista.

Everyone calls her Tina.

She’s 31 years old, a cardiac ICU nurse from Manila who immigrated 3 years ago.

It’s Thursday, October 12th, 2023 at 6:16 p.m.

She’s holding her phone, staring at an email that arrived 3 hours ago.

Subject line: Gene direct testing confidential paternity results.

She opened it at 300 p.m.in the hospital cafeteria.

The father isn’t who she thought.

She’s 3 months pregnant.

She’s been sleeping with two men, both married cardiologists, both her supervisors.

She thought she knew which one was the father.

The test proved her wrong.

Watch as she reaches for the supply closet door handle.

Someone is already inside waiting in the dark.

But it’s not Dr.Garrett Ashford, the 42-year-old married cardiologist she’s been sleeping with since April.

And it’s not Dr.Damen Cross, the 38-year-old married cardiologist she’s been sleeping with since May.

It’s someone who has even more to lose if Tina’s secret comes out.

Someone who’s been planning this moment for days.

Within 6 minutes, Celestina Batista would be dead, strangled while unconscious.

Within 8 minutes, three people would agree to cover it up.

Within 48 hours, investigators would arrest all three.

This was not a crime of passion.

This was murder by committee.

Dr.Garrett Ashford had built his reputation over 15 years.

He was one of Chicago’s most prominent cardiologists.

Featured in Chicago magazine’s top doctors issue for three consecutive years.

He performed cutting edge cardiac procedures that other surgeons couldn’t.

Published research in the journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Taught twice a week at Northwestern’s medical school.

Patients flew from across the country to have him perform their surgeries.

His success rate was 97.3%.

Higher than the national average by 12 percentage points.

He lived in a $3.4 million home in Lincoln Park, a historic neighborhood of Treeline Streets and Victorian mansions.

His wife, Sloan Ashford, was a managing partner at Whitmore and Cats, one of Chicago’s most powerful corporate law firms.

She specialized in mergers and acquisitions, build $850 an hour, regularly appeared on lists of the city’s most influential attorneys.

They had two children, Evelyn, 12, a straight A student at Latin School of Chicago, and Noah, nine, who played travel soccer and took piano lessons.

On the surface, the Ashfords were Chicago royalty, charity gallas, medical conferences, school fundraisers, front row seats at the Lyric Opera, season tickets to the Bulls.

Their Christmas card each year showed the perfect family, Garrett and Sloan in coordinated outfits, Evelyn and Noah smiling, their golden retriever Max sitting obediently in front.

The 2022 card had been sent to 400 people, but Garrett had been having affairs for 7 years.

It started in 2016 with a pharmaceutical sales representative who called on his office weekly.

Then a nurse in the cardiac cath lab in 2018, a patients daughter in 2019, a resident doing her cardiology rotation in 2020.

A medical device consultant in 2021.

A hospital administrator in 2022.

Six women over seven years.

Garrett was careful.

Hotels paid for in cash.

burner phones, deleted text messages.

He believed he’d never get caught.

He was wrong.

Celestina Batista arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on January 9th, 2023.

She’d been hired for the cardiac ICU, one of the most demanding units in the hospital.

Patients recovering from open heart surgery, valve replacements, coronary bypass grafts.

The work required exceptional skill, quick thinking, and the ability to remain calm during codes when patients hearts stopped beating.

Tina had dreamed of being a nurse since she was 12 years old.

Growing up in Quesan City, a densely populated area of Metro Manila, her family was poor.

Her father had died when she was 8, leaving her mother, Peara, to raise four children alone.

Pa worked as a housekeeper in the homes of wealthy Filipino families, cleaning and cooking for 300 pesos a day, approximately $6.

Tina was the oldest child.

She helped raise her three younger siblings.

Marisel, 26, now a teacher in Manila.

Carlos, 23, working construction, and Anna, 19, still in school.

Tina had been brilliant in school despite poverty.

She’d earned a scholarship to the University of Sto.

Tomtomas College of Nursing, one of the Philippines top programs.

She graduated in 2014 with honors, worked at Philippine General Hospital for 3 years, then applied for nursing positions in the United States, the American dream, better pay, better opportunities, the ability to send money home to support her family.

In 2020, Tina received a visa offer from Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

She’d passed the NCLE XRN exam on her first attempt, scored in the 95th percentile, impressed the hospital’s recruiting team with her clinical knowledge and compassionate bedside manner.

She arrived in Chicago on February 3rd, 2020, 1 month before CO 19 shut down the world.

For three years, she worked through the pandemic, treating the sickest cardiac patients, many of whom also had COVID.

She watched colleagues get sick.

She watched patients die.

She worked 60-hour weeks, sometimes 80.

She sent 60% of her paycheck home to Manila every month.

Her mother used it to pay for Anna’s school fees, to fix the roof on their house, to buy medicine when Carlos broke his leg.

Tina lived modestly.

She shared a two-bedroom apartment in Uptown with another Filipino nurse, Amara Aonquo, who worked in pediatric ICU.

Rent was $1,400 a month split between them.

Tina’s room had a bed, a small desk, a crucifix on the wall.

She attended mass every Sunday at St.

Gertude Catholic Church.

She video called her mother every Saturday.

Her Instagram account showed photos of her family, her work scrubs, occasional outings with other Filipino nurses to restaurants in Chinatown.

She was lonely, 3 years in America, thousands of miles from home, working brutal hours, living for a future that always seemed just out of reach.

She wanted to save enough money to bring her mother to Chicago, to buy a small house, to stop living paycheck to paycheck.

But at $68,000 a year after taxes and sending money home, she saved almost nothing.

In April 2023, Tina met Dr.

Garrett Ashford during a complex aortic valve replacement surgery.

The patient was a 67year-old man with severe stenosis, his heart barely pumping enough blood to keep him alive.

The surgery took 7 hours.

Tina was the scrub nurse, assisting Garrett with instruments, anticipating his needs, staying focused despite exhaustion.

After the surgery, Garrett approached her in the hallway.

You were exceptional in there.

Best scrub nurse I’ve worked with in years.

Tina thanked him, said she was just doing her job.

Garrett asked if she’d be interested in observing more of his surgeries, learning advanced cardiac procedures.

Tina said yes immediately.

The opportunity to learn from one of the best cardiologists in Chicago was invaluable.

Two weeks later, Garrett invited Tina to a medical conference in Boston, April 21st through 23rd.

He said Northwestern was sending a team that she’d been recommended by the ICU director as someone with high potential.

The hospital would pay for her flight and hotel.

Tina was thrilled.

She’d never been to Boston.

The conference was at the Hines Convention Center.

Tina attended lectures on advanced cardiac care, new medications, innovative surgical techniques.

On the second night, April 22nd, Garrett invited her to dinner.

He said he wanted to discuss her career trajectory, opportunities for advancement, potential research projects she could participate in.

They ate at Legal Seafoods in the Seapport District.

Garrett ordered wine.

Tina rarely drank, but accepted a glass.

Garrett was charming, attentive, asking about her family, her background, her dreams.

He told her she had extraordinary potential, that he could mentor her, help her move beyond bedside nursing into research or education.

Tina was flattered.

No one at Northwestern had ever shown this kind of interest in her career.

After dinner, Garrett suggested a walk along the harbor.

The April night was cold but clear.

They walked for 30 minutes talking, laughing.

When they returned to the hotel, Garrett asked if she wanted a night cap in the hotel bar.

Tina hesitated, then agreed.

One drink turned into two.

Two turned into Garrett suggesting they continue the conversation in his room where they could talk privately about the research opportunities he had in mind.

Tina knew this was a line being crossed.

But Garrett was a senior physician, married, respected.

She trusted he meant what he said about her career.

In his room, Garrett poured more wine.

He sat close to her on the couch.

He touched her hand.

Tina pulled back slightly.

Garrett apologized, said he misread the situation, but then he told her something she’d needed to hear for 3 years.

You’re extraordinary, beautiful, brilliant, kind.

Any man would be lucky to be with you.

Tina had been lonely for so long.

Garrett was handsome, successful, interested in her, not just professionally, but personally.

When he kissed her, she didn’t stop him.

They slept together that night.

Tina told herself it was a mistake, that it wouldn’t happen again.

But it did.

For 6 months, Tina and Garrett conducted an affair.

Late night shifts when Sloan thought he was in surgery.

Hotel rooms on his lunch breaks paid for in cash.

text messages sent from burner phones, deleted immediately after reading.

Garrett told Tina his marriage was over in all but name that he and Sloan slept in separate bedrooms, stayed together only for the children.

He said he’d leave Sloan eventually when the time was right.

Tina believed him.

She’d fallen in love with him.

She imagined a future.

Garrett divorced, marrying her, bringing her mother to Chicago, starting a family.

It was a fantasy, but it sustained her through the guilt of sleeping with a married man.

What Tina didn’t know was that Sloan Ashford had known about Garrett’s affairs for 3 years.

In September 2020, Sloan had noticed hotel charges on their shared credit card.

When confronted, Garrett claimed they were for colleagues visiting from out of town that he’d offered to help with accommodations.

Sloan didn’t believe him.

She hired a private investigator, Raymond Voss, a former Chicago PD detective who now ran a discrete investigation firm in River North.

Voss followed Garrett for 3 months.

He documented everything.

Six different women, hotel visits, restaurants, prolonged absences from work.

Voss provided Sloan with photos, credit card receipts, license plate numbers.

The evidence was irrefutable.

Garrett was a serial cheater.

Sloan’s reaction surprised even herself.

She wasn’t devastated.

She wasn’t heartbroken.

She was calculating.

Sloan had built her legal career on strategy, on patience, on waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

She decided not to confront Garrett.

Instead, she’d continue gathering evidence, wait for the optimal time to file for divorce, ensure she’d get full custody of Evelyn and Noah.

maximum financial settlement and protect her partnership at Whitmore and Cats from any scandal.

For three years, Sloan played the role of devoted wife while secretly compiling a file of Garrett’s infidelities.

She kept everything in a safety deposit box at Chase Bank on Michigan Avenue, photographs, receipts, private investigator reports.

She consulted with divorce attorneys quietly asking hypothetical questions about asset division, custody arrangements, alimony calculations.

She was preparing for war.

In May 2023, Dr.

Damen Cross met Tina during a hospital code.

A patient in cardiac ICU had gone into ventricular fibrillation, his heart rhythm chaotic and deadly.

Tina was the first responder, already performing CPR.

When Damian arrived, he took over chest compressions while Tina prepared the defibrillator.

They worked together seamlessly.

The patient survived.

Afterward, Damen thanked Tina for her quick thinking.

She’d saved the patients life.

Tina said she was just doing her job.

Damian introduced himself properly.

Said he’d seen her around the unit, heard from other doctors that she was one of the best nurses they had.

Tina blushed, thanked him.

Damian Cross was different from Garrett.

He was quieter, more thoughtful, genuinely kind.

He was married to Elena Cross, a trauma surgeon at Northwestern.

They had three young children.

Lucas, seven, Emma, five, and Sophie, three.

Damian loved his family.

His office was filled with photos.

His kids at the beach, Elena in her wedding dress, family ski trips to Colorado.

But Damian was also lonely in his marriage.

Elena worked 80our weeks in the trauma department.

Their schedules rarely aligned.

They hadn’t had a real conversation in months.

Hadn’t had sex in over a year.

Damian wasn’t looking for an affair.

But when Tina smiled at him in the break room 2 weeks after the code, when they started having coffee together on their breaks, when she laughed at his jokes and asked about his children, he felt something he hadn’t felt in years.

Scene.

The affair began almost accidentally.

Late May, after a particularly brutal shift where they’d lost two patients, Damen and Tina found themselves alone in the physician’s lounge at 2:00 a.

m.

Tina was crying.

She’d performed CPR on one of the patients for 40 minutes, trying desperately to bring him back.

Damen held her, comforted her.

The hug turned into a kiss.

They slept together on the couch in the lounge.

Damian was consumed with guilt.

He went home that morning, looked at Elena sleeping, looked at his children’s photos, hated himself.

He told himself it was a one-time mistake, that it would never happen again.

But it did.

He couldn’t stay away from Tina.

She made him feel alive.

For 4 months, Tina was sleeping with two men, Garrett and Damian.

Neither knew about the other.

Tina told herself she was trying to figure out which relationship was real, which man truly cared about her.

But the truth was simpler and more complicated.

She was in love with Garrett and emotionally connected to Damian, and she didn’t know how to choose between them.

In August 2023, Raymond Voss was following Garrett as usual.

He photographed Garrett entering the Hilton Garden Inn on East Grand Avenue at 12:30 p.

m.

on a Tuesday.

30 minutes later, Vos photographed Tina Batista entering the same hotel.

They emerged together at 2:15 p.

m.

Garrett’s latest affair confirmed, but Voss kept watching Tina.

He followed her from the hospital on August 18th.

She met a man at a coffee shop in Wicker Park.

Voss photographed them.

Intimate conversation, holding hands across the table, a kiss before parting.

Voss ran the man’s license plate.

The car was registered to Dr.

Damen Cross, another cardiologist at Northwestern.

Voss reported back to Sloan on August 21st.

Your husband’s mistress is also sleeping with his best friend.

Sloan studied the photographs Voss provided.

Tina with Garrett at the hotel.

Tina with Damian at the coffee shop.

Tina entering Damen’s car on three separate occasions.

Sloan’s mind worked quickly.

This wasn’t just an affair.

This was leverage.

If Garrett’s mistress was also sleeping with Damian, both doctors were vulnerable.

Both had everything to lose.

Sloan could use this information not just to destroy Garrett in a divorce, but to protect herself, to ensure no one would question her version of events.

When the marriage ended, Sloan told Voss to continue surveillance.

She wanted every detail where they met, how often, any communication she could access.

Voss expanded his operation.

He tracked Tina’s movements, her phone usage, her internet searches.

By late September, Voss had compiled a comprehensive file on Tina Batista, her immigration status, her visa sponsored by Northwestern, her family in Manila, her financial situation.

Sloan researched Tina’s H1B visa.

It was tied to her employment at Northwestern.

If Tina lost her job, her visa would be revoked.

She’d have 60 days to find new sponsorship or leave the country.

Sloan realized she held Tina’s entire future in her hands.

Act two.

Tina missed her period in early July 2023.

First, she didn’t think much of it.

Stress could delay menstruation and working 60-hour weeks in cardiac ICU was stressful.

But by mid July, when her period still hadn’t arrived, Tina bought a pregnancy test at Walgreens on her way home from a shift.

She took the test in the bathroom of her apartment at 6:00 a.

m.

on July 18th, her hands shaking as she waited for the result.

Two pink lines, positive.

Tina stared at the test for 5 minutes, unable to process what it meant.

She was pregnant.

She was 31 years old, unmarried, sleeping with two married men and pregnant.

The panic set in immediately.

Who was the father? She’d been with Garrett in late April, early May.

She’d been with Damian starting in late May.

The conception window could be either man.

She had no way of knowing without a paternity test.

Tina told no one at first.

She went to work, performed her duties, smiled at patients, and tried to pretend everything was normal.

But inside, she was unraveling.

She couldn’t eat.

She couldn’t sleep.

She’d lie awake at night calculating timelines, trying to remember dates, trying to convince herself she knew which man was the father.

By August, Tina was 8 weeks pregnant.

Morning sickness began.

She’d vomit before shifts during breaks in patient bathrooms when no one was watching.

Her roommate Amara noticed.

You look terrible.

Are you sick? Tina said she had a stomach bug that it would pass.

On September 3rd, Tina broke down.

She told Amara everything.

Both affairs, the pregnancy, her uncertainty about paternity.

Amara was shocked.

Tina, these are married men, doctors, your supervisors.

This could destroy your career.

Tina knew.

She’d been thinking about nothing else for weeks.

Amara asked what Tina planned to do.

Tina said she didn’t know.

Abortion crossed her mind, but her Catholic faith made it unthinkable.

She’d been raised to believe life began at conception, that abortion was a mortal sin.

She couldn’t do it even in these circumstances.

Amara urged Tina to tell both men immediately.

They have a right to know, and you need to know who the father is before you make any decisions.

Tina agreed in theory, but couldn’t imagine actually having those conversations.

How do you tell two married men you might be carrying their child? By late September, Tina was 12 weeks pregnant.

She could no longer hide the symptoms.

She’d lost weight from constant nausea.

Dark circles shadowed her eyes from sleepless nights.

Her scrubs hung looser on her frame.

Colleagues asked if she was okay.

She said she was fine, just tired.

On September 28th, Tina researched early paternity testing.

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