Chapter 6 - KHLOE WASN’T PRESTON’S MISTRESS
Rachel asked Elena the question everyone else was thinking.
“Are they sleeping together?”
Elena sat at her kitchen table holding Samuel.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think they are?”
“A month ago? Yes.”
“And now?”
Elena looked down at her son.
“No.”
That surprised Rachel.
It surprised Elena too.
The messages between Preston and Khloe obtained during the hospital’s internal review were frequent.
Sometimes inappropriate in timing.
But mostly professional.
Cases.
Schedules.
Research spreadsheets.
Quality metrics.
No sexual messages had surfaced.
No hotel receipts.
No secret love declarations.
The affair explanation had been simple.
It was also becoming less likely.
What connected them was work.
Preston had spent two years developing a hospital quality initiative intended to reduce unnecessary primary cesarean deliveries among low-risk patients.
The goal itself was legitimate.
Lowering avoidable surgery could be good medicine.
The problem was how Preston had begun treating the metric.
Success became personal.
He presented results at conferences.
His name appeared on posters.
A regional medical group was considering him for a leadership role in maternal-quality improvement.
Khloe helped collect data.
She wanted a competitive fellowship.
Preston wanted the program to look exceptional.
Laura showed Elena a presentation slide recovered in the internal review.
No patient names.
Aggregate numbers.
The hospital’s cesarean rate in Preston’s selected cohort had decreased substantially.
Then another document.
An internal email from Khloe:
We need to recheck exclusions. Several of these patients were not really low risk.
Preston replied:
Don’t sabotage the project because you’re afraid of scrutiny. Use the criteria we agreed on.
Elena frowned.
“What does that have to do with me?”
Laura turned another page.
Elena’s pregnancy had been added to the project tracking spreadsheet.
Not as research requiring experimental treatment.
As part of an internal quality cohort.
She had not known.
That alone did not necessarily mean anything improper.
Hospitals review routine outcomes all the time.
But next to Elena’s entry was a note:
Physician-family case. High visibility. Target vaginal delivery if clinically reasonable.
Elena felt cold.
“Target?”
Laura’s expression stayed neutral.
“I would like the hospital to explain that language.”
Suddenly Preston’s obsession with Elena “trying labor” looked different.
So did Khloe’s involvement.
And so did his anger when Elena independently chose a C-section.
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Her birth was not just their child’s birth to him.
It had become a test case inside a professional story he wanted to tell about himself.
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