Tina spun around, saw Sloan Ashford standing there in her expensive suit, holding a briefcase.

Her face went white.

How did you What are you doing here? Sloan smiled without warmth.

I know everything, Celestina.

I know you’ve been sleeping with my husband.

I know you’re also sleeping with Dr.

Cross here.

I know you’re pregnant and playing them both.

What I want to know is how much is it going to cost to make you disappear? Tina’s shock turned to anger.

I’m not disappearing.

This is Damian’s baby.

He needs to take responsibility.

Sloan laughed.

Responsibility? You’re a nurse screwing merry doctors and getting pregnant.

You have no leverage here.

I’m offering you $75,000 and a clean exit.

Take it or face deportation.

At 6:18 p.

m.

, the door opened again.

Garrett walked in, saw his wife, saw Tina, saw Damian holding an envelope of cash.

He froze.

Sloan, what the hell are you doing here? Sloan turned to her husband.

I’m cleaning up your mess like I always do.

The room erupted.

Garrett demanded to know how Sloan found out about Tina.

Sloan revealed she’d known about his affairs for 3 years.

Had documentation of everything.

Damen tried to leave.

Sloan stepped in front of the door, blocking his path.

Nobody leaves until we settle this.

Tina, overwhelmed and cornered, pulled out her phone.

Fine.

I’m calling Elena right now and then I’m calling hospital administration.

You’ll all be destroyed.

Damian lunged for her phone.

Tina jerked away.

Garrett grabbed Damen trying to stop him.

Sloan shouted for everyone to stop.

In the chaos, Sloan grabbed the fire extinguisher mounted on the wall.

She swung it at Tina, aiming to knock the phone from her hand.

The heavy metal canister connected with the side of Tina’s head.

Hard.

The sound was sickening.

A dull crack of metal against skull.

Tina dropped instantly, her body crumpling.

Her head struck the metal base of a shelving unit as she fell.

Blood pulled beneath her almost immediately.

Everyone froze.

Silence.

Damian dropped to his knees beside Tina.

Checked her pulse.

She’s alive barely.

We need to call for help now.

Garrett knelt beside Tina.

Looked at the blood.

Looked at Sloan.

Looked at Damian.

He made a calculation.

If we call for help, we’re all finished.

Our careers, our families, everything.

Sloan in shock whispered, “It was an accident.

She was going to destroy us.

” Garrett’s voice was cold, decisive.

She’s already dying from the head trauma.

Even if we call a code, she probably won’t make it.

And if she wakes up, she destroys all of us.

Damian realized what Garrett meant.

No.

No.

We have to help her.

Garrett placed his hands around Tina’s throat.

Damen tried to pull him off.

Sloan grabbed Damen’s arm, yanked him back with surprising strength.

“Let him finish it,” she hissed.

“She’s as good as dead anyway.

This way, it’s over.

No scandal, no trials, no destroyed families.

” Garrett squeezed.

Tina was unconscious.

Couldn’t fight back.

Her pulse was weak, her breathing shallow.

It took 2 minutes and 14 seconds.

Damian watched, frozen, complicit in his paralysis.

Sloan watched, her hands still gripping Damen’s arm.

At 6:22 p.

m.

, Tina’s pulse stopped.

Celestina Batista was dead.

The baby boy inside her died with her.

Act four, Garrett stood, looked at his hands, looked at Tina’s body on the floor.

Blood had pulled around her head, dark and spreading.

Her phone lay beside her, screen still lit, showing Elena Cross’s contact information.

Garrett’s mind worked quickly, survival instinct overriding shock.

Listen to me very carefully.

This was an accident.

She slipped, hit her head.

I found her and tried to help.

That’s the only story.

Do you both understand? Sloan nodded, still holding the briefcase with $75,000 that would never be used.

Damian was shaking, crying.

I can’t do this.

I can’t lie about this.

Garrett grabbed him by the shoulders.

You’re already in it.

You were here.

Your DNA is in this room.

You watched and didn’t call for help.

You’re as guilty as we are.

Sloan spoke, her lawyer voice returning.

Damian, think about Elena, your children.

Do you want them to know you were screwing a nurse? That you got her pregnant? That you let her die? Damian’s resistance crumbled.

He nodded weakly.

Garrett gave instructions.

Sloan, you leave first.

Back stairwell, exit through the ER entrance.

Cameras won’t get a clear face.

Damian, you leave second.

Main elevator, exit through the lobby.

Act normal.

I’ll wait 5 minutes.

Then discover the body and call a code.

They synchronized watches.

It was 6:23 p.

m.

Sloan picked up her briefcase, wiped the fire extinguisher handle with her suit jacket, and left at 6:24 p.

m.

She walked quickly to the back stairwell, descended four flights, exited through the ER entrance where cameras were pointed at ambulance bays, not the door.

She was in her car by 6:28 p.

m.

Damen left at 6:26 p.

m.

He took the main elevator down, walked through the lobby past security, tried to keep his face neutral.

His hands were shaking.

He got to his car in the parking garage, sat behind the wheel, and vomited into a plastic bag.

Then he drove home to Elena and their children.

Garrett waited in the supply room with Tina’s body.

He used the time to stage the scene.

He moved the fire extinguisher farther from the body, made it look like it had fallen from the wall mount.

He scattered a few supplies from the shelves, suggesting Tina had grabbed at them while falling.

He wiped surfaces he’d touched.

At 6:28 p.

m.

, he stepped into the hallway and screamed, “Code blue, supply room 4B.

I need help.

” Staff rushed from all directions.

Two nurses, a resident, the code team with their crash cart.

Garrett was on his knees beside Tina performing chest compressions.

His face showing perfect panic.

I was walking past, heard something fall, found her like this.

She must have hit her head.

The code team took over.

Advanced cardiac life support protocol.

Intubation for access, epinephrine, atropene, defibrillation.

They worked for 15 minutes trying everything.

At 6:43 p.

m.

, Dr.

Sarah Kim, the attending physician, checked for a pulse, found none.

Checked pupils, found them fixed and dilated.

Time of death, 6:43 p.

m.

Tina’s body was covered with a white sheet.

Hospital security was called to secure the scene.

Garrett gave a statement to security.

He’d been walking past the supply room around 6:28 p.

m.

Heard a noise like something falling.

opened the door, found Tina unconscious on the floor with blood around her head.

He had immediately started CPR and called for help.

He had no idea what had happened.

It appeared she’d slipped and hit her head.

At 7:15 p.

m.

, Amara Aonquo was finishing her shift in the pediatric ICU on the sixth floor.

She was exhausted, looking forward to going home, taking a shower, sleeping.

Her phone buzzed with a text in the hospital staff group chat.

A nurse from cardiac ICU.

Did you hear? Tina Batista died tonight.

Found in a supply room.

They think she slipped and hit her head.

So tragic.

Amara stared at her phone, unable to process the words.

Tina was dead.

That was impossible.

She’d seen Tina that morning in the parking lot.

Waved to her.

Now she was dead.

Amara called the cardiac ICU immediately.

A colleague confirmed it.

Tina had been found unconscious in supply room 4B around 6:30 p.

m.

Dr.

Ashford had found her.

They tried everything, but she died.

Amara’s mind raced.

Tina had been terrified of Garrett Ashford.

Tina was pregnant with either Garrett’s or Damian’s baby.

Tina had threatened to expose both men today, and now she was dead, supposedly from an accident.

Amara didn’t believe it for a second.

At 7:45 p.

m.

, Amara went to the cardiac ICU.

Police and hospital security were there interviewing staff.

Amara approached a security officer.

I was Tina’s roommate.

I need to know what happened.

The officer said it appeared to be an accidental fall, head trauma.

Tragic, but not suspicious.

Amara insisted on speaking to police.

The officer called Chicago PD at 8:30 p.

m.

Detective Sharon Rivera arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

She was 45 years old, had been with Chicago PD for 20 years, worked homicide for the last 12.

She’d seen enough to know that accidents in hospitals were sometimes not accidents at all.

She met with hospital security first, reviewed their initial reports.

A nurse, Celestina Batista, found unconscious in a supply room at approximately 6:28 p.

m.

by Dr.

Garrett Ashford, died despite resuscitation efforts.

Apparent accidental fall.

Rivera asked to see the scene.

Supply room 4B had been secured, but not yet processed as a crime scene because it wasn’t considered one.

Rivera entered, studied the room carefully, blood on the floor where the body had been.

A fire extinguisher on the floor near the blood apparently fallen from its wall mount.

Medical supplies scattered, but something felt wrong.

The blood spatter pattern didn’t match a simple fall.

There were droplets on the wall suggesting motion struggle, not just vertical impact.

At 8:45 p.

m.

, Rivera interviewed Amara Akono.

Amara told her everything.

The two affairs with Garrett and Damian, the pregnancy, the uncertainty about paternity, the threats Tina had made to both men, the paternity test results that had come back today.

Amara showed Rivera screenshots she’d saved from Tina’s text messages, intimate conversations with both doctors, plans to meet.

Rivera’s instincts sharpened.

Two married doctors having affairs with the same nurse.

Nurse gets pregnant, threatens to expose them.

nurse ends up dead the same day.

This was no accident.

Rivera requested Tina’s personal effects immediately.

Hospital security brought her belongings, scrubs, shoes, and her phone.

Rivera examined the phone.

Last sent message at 3:17 p.

m.

Group text to two contacts labeled Garrett and Damian.

The message read, “Paternity results came back.

It’s yours.

supply room 4B at 6:15 p.

m.

Come alone or I’m calling Elena tonight.

Rivera felt adrenaline spike.

Tina had told both men to meet her at the supply room at 6:15 p.

m.

She died at approximately 6:22 p.

m.

At 9:15 p.

m.

, Rivera requested all security footage from the fourth floor between 5:00 p.

m.

and 7:00 p.

m.

hospital security provided access to their system.

Rivera watched the footage carefully.

At 6:12 p.

m.

, a woman in a business suit entered supply room 4B.

Her back was to the camera, face not visible.

At 6:14 p.

m.

, a man in a white doctor’s coat entered the same room.

Rivera paused, zoomed in, identified him by his hospital ID badge.

Dr.

Damen Cross.

At 6:16 p.

m.

, a woman in nursing scrubs entered supply room 4B, Tina Batista.

At 6:18 p.

m.

, another man in a white coat entered, Dr.

Garrett Ashford.

All four people were now in the supply room together.

At 6:24 p.

m.

, the woman in the business suit exited, walked quickly toward the back stairwell.

At 6:26 p.

m.

, Damen Cross exited, took the main elevator down.

At 6:28 p.

m.

, Garrett Ashford opened the door and called for help.

Rivera ran the license plate of the business suit woman’s car from parking garage footage.

The Mercedes was registered to Sloan Ashford, Garrett’s wife.

Rivera now had four people in the room when one died.

Tina, Garrett, Damian, and Sloan.

She had motive.

Both doctors had affairs with Tina.

She was pregnant.

She threatened exposure.

she had opportunity.

All three were there when she died.

At 10:30 p.

m.

, Rivera called her lieutenant, requested arrest warrants for Garrett Ashford, Damen Cross, and Sloan Ashford, all for first-degree murder and conspiracy.

At 11:15 p.

m.

, Chicago PD arrived at the Asheford home in Lincoln Park.

Garrett and Sloan were both there, their children asleep upstairs.

Police knocked.

Garrett answered, saw the badges knew immediately.

Both were arrested, read their rights, taken in separate cars.

Their children woke to commotion, saw parents in handcuffs.

A grandmother was called.

At 11:45 p.

m.

, police arrived at the Cross home in Evston.

Elena answered, confused.

Damian was in his study.

Police entered.

Dr.

Cross, you’re under arrest for the murder of Celestina Batista.

Elena screamed.

What? There’s been a mistake.

Damian didn’t resist, didn’t speak, just allowed the handcuffs.

Elena was sobbing.

Their children woke up crying.

Elena’s parents were called to take the children.

Damian was driven to the station, silent the entire way.

Within 12 hours of Tina’s death, all three suspects were in custody.

October 13th, 2023.

2 a.

m.

Detective Sharon Rivera sat across from Dr.

Garrett Ashford in interrogation room 3 at Chicago Police Department’s Area 3 headquarters.

Garrett had requested an attorney.

Eleanor Banks, one of Chicago’s top criminal defense lawyers, sat beside him.

She’d been hired by Sloan’s law firm, an irony not lost on anyone.

Rivera placed an evidence folder on the table.

Dr.

Ashford, let’s start simple.

You stated you found nurse Batista unconscious at 6:28 p.

m.

Is that correct? Garrett nodded.

Yes, I was walking past the supply room, heard a noise, went to investigate.

Rivera opened the folder, slid a photograph across the table.

Security camera footage timestamped 6:18 p.

m.

showing Garrett entering supply room 4B.

This shows you entering that room at 6:18 p.

m.

10 minutes before you claim you found her.

Explain.

Garrett stared at the photo.

His attorney whispered in his ear.

Garrett’s voice was steady.

I may have misremembered the exact time.

It was traumatic finding her like that.

Rivera slid another photo across.

This shows your wife entering the same room at 6:12 p.

m.

This shows Dr.

Damian Cross entering at 6:14 p.

m.

This shows nurse Batista entering at 6:16 p.

m.

All four of you were in that room.

She ends up dead 6 minutes later.

What happened? Garrett leaned back.

I want to speak with my attorney privately.

The interrogation paused.

Rivera left the room, watched through the one-way glass as Garrett and Elellanor Banks spoke in urgent whispers.

She knew he was calculating, trying to find a story that fit the evidence.

But Rivera had more evidence than he knew about.

At 3:30 a.

m.

, Rivera moved to interrogation room 5 where Dr.

Damen Cross sat with a public defender.

Damian looked destroyed, his eyes red, hands shaking.

The public defender, a young woman named Sarah Mitchell, seemed overwhelmed.

Rivera sat down, opened her folder.

Dr.

Cross Celestina Batista sent you a text at 3:17 p.

m.

yesterday telling you to meet her in supply room 4B at 6:15 p.

m.

Did you go? Damian’s face crumpled.

He started crying before he could answer.

Sarah Mitchell put her hand on his arm, warned him not to say anything, but Damen couldn’t hold it in anymore.

The guilt was eating him alive.

Yes, I went.

I brought money.

I thought I could pay her to leave.

Rivera leaned forward.

What happened in that room? Damian’s confession poured out.

He told Rivera everything.

The affair with Tina, the pregnancy, the paternity test confirming he was the father.

Tina’s threat to tell his wife.

He described arriving at the supply room.

Finding it dark.

Sloan Ashford already there hiding.

Then Tina arriving then Garrett.

The confrontation escalating.

Tina threatening to call Elena and hospital administration.

Sloan grabbed the fire extinguisher, Damen said, his voice breaking.

She swung it at Tina.

It hit her head.

Tina fell, hit the metal shelf.

There was so much blood.

I checked her pulse.

She was still alive.

I said we needed to call for help.

Damen sobbed.

Garrett said if we called for help, we’d all be destroyed.

He said she was dying anyway.

Then he he put his hands around her throat.

Rivera kept her voice neutral.

Dr.

Ashford strangled her.

Damen nodded, unable to speak.

“And what did you do?” Damen whispered.

“I tried to stop him.

” Sloan grabbed my arm, pulled me back.

She said to let him finish it.

I just stood there.

I watched her die and I did nothing.

I’m as guilty as they are.

Sarah Mitchell was frantically trying to stop Damian from talking, but he wanted to confess.

He needed to confess.

Rivera had the entire statement recorded.

She asked one more question.

How long did Dr.

Ashford strangle her? Damen closed his eyes.

Seeing it again.

2 minutes, maybe more.

Felt like forever.

She wasn’t even conscious.

He just kept squeezing until her pulse stopped.

At 5:00 a.

m.

, Rivera interviewed Sloan Ashford in interrogation room 2.

Sloan had her own attorney now, Thomas Riley from a different firm.

No conflict of interest.

Sloan was calm, composed, answering carefully.

Rivera showed her the security footage.

Mrs.

Ashford, why were you at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on October 12th? Sloan’s answer was practiced.

I went to confront the woman having an affair with my husband.

Rivera asked how she knew about the affair.

Sloan admitted hiring a private investigator 3 years ago.

Having documentation of six affairs, Rivera asked what happened in the supply room.

Sloan’s story was self-defense.

I went to offer her money to leave Chicago.

She became aggressive, threatened my family.

She pulled out her phone to call people to destroy us.

I tried to take the phone.

She fought me.

I grabbed the fire extinguisher to defend myself.

I swung it.

It hit her head.

She fell.

Rivera pressed.

Then what? Sloan’s composure cracked slightly.

I panicked.

I didn’t mean to hurt her that badly.

My husband came in.

He checked her.

He said she was dying from the head injury.

He said if we called for help, we’d all face charges.

Rivera leaned in.

So, you agreed to let him strangle her? Sloan shook her head.

I didn’t agree to anything.

I was in shock.

I couldn’t move.

Rivera slid a photograph across the table.

Dr.

Cross says you grabbed his arm when he tried to help her.

He says you told your husband to finish it.

Is that true? Sloan’s lawyer objected.

Sloan said nothing.

Rivera played her final card.

Mrs.

Ashford, there’s a security camera in that supply room.

New installation from October 1st.

Not on the main system.

We have video of everything.

Sloan’s face went pale.

What? Rivera nodded.

We have video of you striking Tina Batista with the fire extinguisher.

Of you grabbing Dr.

Cross’s arm.

Of you watching your husband strangle a woman to death.

All of it.

So, I’ll ask you again.

What really happened? Sloan looked at her attorney.

Thomas Riley requested a private consultation.

The interrogation ended.

At 10:00 a.

m.

, forensic teams processed supply room 4B as a crime scene.

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