I gripped my father’s hand tighter, fear seizing my chest. “Is my baby okay?”
Dr. Evans sighed, looking directly into my eyes. “The blunt force trauma to your lower back caused a partial placental abruption. The baby is experiencing intermittent distress. We are doing everything we can to avoid an emergency C-section at seven months, but the next twelve hours are critical. If your blood pressure spikes, or if the internal bleeding resumes… we will have to make a choice.”
A tear slipped down my cheek. My father stood up, his towering frame casting a long shadow across the room. He turned to the doctor. “She will have the best care in the world. I have already flown in a specialist from Johns Hopkins. He lands in an hour.”
Dr. Evans nodded respectfully and exited the room, leaving a heavy, suffocating dread in her wake.
My father turned back to me, his jaw clenched so tightly the muscles jumped. “David and his mother are currently being held at the federal holding facility downtown. Because they attempted to prevent you from seeking emergency medical care while under federal protection guidelines, I have bypassed the local state prosecutors. They are facing federal conspiracy, aggravated assault, and deprivation of life charges.”
“David thinks he can use his firm,” I whispered, my voice raw. “His senior partner, Arthur Vance… that’s his uncle. They have deep pockets, Dad. They know every loophole.”
“They don’t have enough money for this loophole,” my father said, his voice dropping into a chilling whisper. “I am going to ruin them, Anna. Every judge who ever took a bribe from their firm, every corrupt cop they have on retainer—I am tearing their kingdom down to the bedrock.”
Suddenly, the monitor connected to my belly began to emit a sharp, rapid, chaotic beeping.
The steady beep… beep… turned into a frantic, high-pitched wail.
My chest tightened. A wave of intense, blinding heat washed over me, followed by a sensation of liquid pooling beneath my sheets. The pain returned, ten times worse than before, a white-hot knife twisting in my abdomen.
“Dad!” I screamed, grabbing my stomach as the monitors went wild. “Something’s wrong! It hurts! It hurts so bad!”
The door flew open. Dr. Evans rushed in, followed by four nurses.
“She’s hemorrhaging!” a nurse shouted, ripping back the blanket. The stark white sheets were rapidly turning a terrifying, deep crimson.
“Get her to the OR now!” Dr. Evans ordered, her voice laced with panic. “The placenta has completely detached! We’re losing the fetal heartbeat! Call the NICU team!”
My father was pushed back as the nurses unlocked my bed, wheeling me furiously out into the hallway. The ceiling lights flashed past me like a strobe. I was drowning in pain, the sound of the alarms ringing in my ears, my father’s desperate voice fading into the distance as he shouted for the doctors to save his daughter.
We slammed through the double doors of the Operating Room. The bright, metallic glare of the surgical lights blinded me.
“Prep her for general anesthesia! We don’t have time for an epidural!” Dr. Evans barked, a plastic mask lowering toward my face. “Count backward from ten, Anna. Hold on for your baby.”
“Ten… nine…” I whispered, the darkness creeping into the edges of my vision.
Just as the darkness was about to consume me, the heavy wooden doors of the operating room burst open. A man in blood-spluttered surgical scrubs stormed in, pushing a nurse aside. But it wasn’t the specialist from Johns Hopkins.
I stared at the man’s face through the haze of the anesthesia. My heart stopped.
It was David’s uncle—Arthur Vance, the senior partner of the most corrupt defense firm in the state. He wasn’t a doctor. He had a surgical mask tied hastily over his face, his eyes wild, holding a silver medical syringe hidden beneath a stolen hospital gown.
Our eyes locked as he lunged toward my IV line.
I lay frozen under the bed, my heart pounding so violently I was sure the mattress was shaking. Lucy’s white sneakers trembled just inches from my face. She was rocking back and forth, sobbing like her soul was being ripped apart.
“I can’t do this anymore…” she whispered. “Why won’t they just leave me alone?”
Then she said the name.
“Mr. Reynolds… please… stop.”
The world stopped.
