The hospital told me my birth certificate was “system-broken”—the same day a doctor disappeared. Suddenly I was the liar. Punches rained down, the alley darkened, but I still whispered the only thing I felt was true: “Don’t trust signatures.” I checked the duty roster and found a nurse who didn’t exist—but her signature was everywhere. Then I checked the hallway video: I was never taken into the delivery room…
The first time I heard the phrase “system-broken,” it didn’t even sound like English. It sounded like a way to end a conversation without answering anything. I was standing at the Records window of Mercy Pines Hospital, palms sweating against a folder of paperwork, when the clerk slid my request back to me like it…