Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT THE HOSPITAL BURNED
Emergency lights flashed red.
A nurse rushed into my room.
“We need to evacuate.”
Smoke had entered the maternity wing through the ventilation system.
Julian grabbed my medical files while Dr. Morgan disconnected the monitors.
My phone remained pressed to my ear.
“Where are you?” I demanded.
Thomas answered calmly.
“Close enough to keep you alive.”
“You did this?”
“No. Conrad did.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he used the same method eighteen years ago.”
The call ended.
Security attempted to move me toward the elevators, but Dr. Morgan refused.
“Stairs could trigger labor.”
The hospital’s emergency transport team brought a specialized evacuation chair.
As we entered the corridor, sprinklers burst overhead.
Patients screamed.
Nurses pushed bassinets toward the stairwell.
Then Julian noticed a man wearing hospital scrubs moving against the flow of evacuation.
He carried a metal medical case.
The man looked directly at me.
Then he reached inside his coat.
Julian tackled him.
A syringe skidded across the floor.
Security restrained the attacker.
Inside his medical case were two empty infant transport tags labeled BABY VALE A and BABY VALE B.
The fire was not designed to kill me.
It was designed to create confusion around an emergency delivery.
They intended to take my babies.
Dr. Morgan ordered me transferred to another hospital under a false name.
Northstar security moved us through a service tunnel while firefighters battled the blaze.
Before sunrise, police confirmed the fire had been deliberately set.
The arrested man was employed by Pierce Medical Systems.
He refused to speak.
Adrian appeared on television outside the hospital.
He pretended to be a concerned husband.
“My wife and unborn children are missing,” he told reporters. “I fear her family has taken advantage of her medical condition.”
He claimed I was mentally unstable.
He said the hostile acquisition was unauthorized.
He accused Julian of kidnapping me.
Then he announced he would seek emergency guardianship over my medical decisions.
I watched from a secure hospital room and felt something inside me become perfectly still.
Adrian had relied on the oldest weapon used against women who resisted control.
He called me crazy.
Celeste moved quickly.
She released photographs of my injuries to the court.
The police report documented his assault.
Dr. Morgan testified that I was mentally competent.
The judge denied Adrian’s guardianship request.
But the media damage spread.
Several investors publicly questioned whether I had manipulated Northstar to punish my husband.
Adrian’s attorneys argued the acquisition should be frozen during divorce proceedings.
Then Northstar auditors discovered the most important document yet.
Adrian had forged my signature on a life insurance policy worth two hundred million dollars.
The beneficiary was a foundation controlled by Conrad Pierce.
If I died during pregnancy, the foundation would receive the money.
In exchange, Adrian would gain ownership of Pierce Medical’s genetic division.
My death had been priced.
That evening, Thomas appeared inside my secure room.
Nobody saw him enter.
He wore a janitor’s uniform and carried no weapon.
Julian moved toward him, but I raised my hand.
“Let him speak.”
Thomas looked at me with something resembling pride.
“You have your mother’s instincts.”
“My mother lied about your death.”
“She protected you.”
“She protected your crimes.”
His expression changed.
“You found the files.”
“Enough of them.”
Thomas sat near the window.
“Conrad wants the twins because their embryos contain the only successful correction of a mutation that killed several children in the original trials.”
“Correction?”
“The Helix program caused catastrophic heart defects. I spent years repairing the process.”
“By experimenting on my children?”
“By saving them.”
“You altered them without consent.”
“I gave them a future.”
I pressed the nurse-call button.
Thomas smiled.
“You think the police can protect you?”
“No.”
“Then why call them?”
“I’m not calling the police.”
The door opened.
Vanessa entered with two federal agents.
Thomas stood.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Vanessa held up her phone.
“You just admitted everything.”
May you like
My father had come to recruit me.
Instead, he walked into a confession.
