Chapter 9
“Emily is bleeding heavily,” Dr. Patel said. “We’re doing everything we can.”
My legs gave way.
Claire caught me before I hit the floor.
A nurse hurried past with another bag of blood.
Behind the operating-room doors, machines alarmed.
I pressed both hands against my face.
I had promised Emily I would protect her.
Yet every secret, every lie, and every act of violence had followed her into that room.
“Daniel,” Claire whispered, “your daughter needs you.”
A nurse led us to the neonatal intensive care unit.
My baby lay beneath clear plastic.
She was tiny.
Wires covered her body.
A breathing tube hid part of her face.
“She weighs four pounds, three ounces,” the nurse said. “She’s fighting.”
I slipped my hand through the opening.
My daughter’s fingers curled around one of mine.
The movement was weak.
It was also the strongest thing I had ever felt.
“Her name is Grace,” I whispered.
Emily and I had chosen it months earlier.
Grace meant receiving something precious even after pain.
“Your mother wanted to take everything from us,” Claire said.
I watched my daughter breathe.
“She didn’t.”
Two hours passed before Dr. Patel returned.
Emily had survived surgery.
She was unconscious but stable.
I cried against the wall.
Claire cried with me.
When Emily woke that evening, her first word was not my name.
“Grace?”
“She’s alive.”
I showed her a photograph.
Emily touched the screen with trembling fingers.
“She’s beautiful.”
“She has your nose.”
“She looks angry.”
“She’s already a Carter.”
Emily smiled weakly.
Then her expression became serious.
“Is Carol in custody?”
“Yes.”
“And Diane?”
“Still locked up.”
“Then why do I feel like this isn’t over?”
Because it wasn’t.
Detective Ruiz arrived with news.
Carol had confessed that Diane maintained a hidden storage unit under a false name.
Police found cash, forged IDs, trust documents, and a notebook listing people Diane had paid.
Linda’s name was there.
Carol’s name was there.
So was a hospital employee named Megan Price.
“Who is she?” I asked.
“A maternity records clerk,” Ruiz said. “She accessed Emily’s file yesterday.”
The hospital locked down the unit.
Security searched every floor.
Megan had already disappeared.
At midnight, a fire alarm sounded.
Red lights flashed.
Nurses began moving patients according to emergency procedures.
Smoke entered the hallway.
Someone had started a fire in a supply closet.
Security evacuated Emily toward another wing.
I followed her bed while Claire stayed near Grace.
Then the lights went out.
Emergency power activated seconds later.
Emily’s bed was empty.
The straps hung open.
“Emily!”
I ran down the corridor.
A stairwell door slammed.
I pushed through it and heard wheels below.
Megan was dragging Emily in a wheelchair.
Emily was still weak from surgery.
She tried to grab the railing, but Megan struck her hand.
“Stop!”
Megan looked up.
She abandoned the chair and ran downstairs.
I reached Emily.
“She took my bracelet,” Emily said. “The one matching Grace’s identification.”
My blood froze.
The bracelet could help Megan pass as Grace’s mother.
I called Claire.
She did not answer.
I raced toward the NICU.
The fire alarm screamed overhead.
When I entered, Claire lay on the floor beside an empty bassinet.
A nurse was calling for help.
“Where’s Grace?”
Claire opened her eyes.
“Megan hit me.”
The nurse checked the tracking system.
Grace’s security tag had been cut off.
Cameras showed Megan carrying a covered infant toward the loading dock.
Ruiz alerted every officer nearby.
I ran downstairs despite security ordering me to stop.
Rain hammered the parking lot.
A sedan sped toward the exit.
I stepped into its path.
The driver swerved and struck a barrier.
Megan climbed out, holding Grace against her chest.
“Stay back!” she screamed.
My daughter was wrapped in the torn blanket from our nursery.
“Megan, give her to me.”
“Diane promised me fifty thousand dollars.”
“She can’t pay you. The accounts are frozen.”
Megan’s face collapsed.
“You’re lying.”
Police vehicles surrounded the lot.
Grace began crying.
The sound cut through the rain.
Megan looked at the officers.
Then she looked at the concrete wall beyond the loading dock.
“If I can’t have the money, nobody gets the baby.”
She backed toward the edge.
I lifted my empty hands.
“You still have a choice.”
“She’ll send someone after me.”
“Diane cannot control you unless you let her.”
Megan’s arms loosened.
I moved forward slowly.
She handed Grace to me just as officers grabbed her.
May you like
I held my daughter against my heart.
For the first time since she was born, Grace opened her eyes.
