Chapter 4
Darkness swallowed the room.
I screamed.
Marcus grabbed me immediately.
“I'm here.”
Outside, someone shouted.
Emergency lights flickered on seconds later, painting the hallway red.
The fetal monitor continued running on battery.
My daughter's heartbeat filled the darkness.
Fast.
Steady.
Alive.
That sound kept me from falling apart.
The officer outside opened the door.
“Stay inside.”
“What happened?”
“Power interruption.”
Marcus stepped toward him.
“Just this floor?”
“We don't know.”
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
Marcus stared at it.
“Don't answer.”
It stopped.
Then rang again.
Detective Brooks called immediately after.
“Claire, are you secure?”
“Yes.”
“We're on our way.”
“What happened?”
“The hospital lost partial power after someone accessed an electrical maintenance room.”
My skin prickled.
“Vale?”
“We haven't located him.”
The officer moved us away from the window.
Ten minutes later, full power returned.
Nothing else happened.
No intruder appeared.
No masked attacker came through the door.
That almost made it worse.
Whoever had interfered with the power had wanted us frightened.
Or distracted.
Police searched the floor.
Hospital security reviewed cameras.
A man wearing maintenance clothing had entered a restricted utility corridor fifteen minutes earlier.
His face wasn't visible.
But his height and build roughly matched Thomas Vale.
Brooks arrived furious.
“We're moving you again.”
“Where?”
“A secure medical wing at another hospital.”
I hated the idea of transportation.
So did Marcus.
But staying here suddenly felt impossible.
Before the transfer, David received confirmation that Vale had emptied his office.
His computer servers were gone.
So were several filing boxes.
The receptionist said he'd left that morning carrying two suitcases.
My parents were still missing.
Three people connected to the trust had now disappeared.
This wasn't family drama anymore.
It was organized.
On the ambulance ride to the new hospital, police cars traveled ahead and behind us.
I watched the city through tinted glass.
Marcus held my hand.
“I should've seen something.”
“What?”
“Your family.”
I turned toward him.
“You couldn't have known.”
“I knew your father hated me.”
“That isn't the same as poisoning your wife.”
“He hated me because you stopped listening to him after we got married.”
That was true.
Before Marcus, I had called Mom before making almost every decision.
What apartment to rent.
Which job offer to accept.
Whether I could afford a vacation.
Mom called it closeness.
Marcus called it asking permission.
At first I resented him for saying that.
Eventually, I realized he was right.
Maybe my independence had been the betrayal Mom kept talking about.
At the new hospital, I was registered under an alias.
Only essential staff knew my room.
Brooks arrived that evening with good news.
Police had found Mom.
She had used her credit card at a motel seventy miles away.
Officers arrested her in the parking lot.
Dad wasn't with her.
“What did she say?”
I asked.
“Almost nothing.”
“Did she ask about me?”
Brooks paused.
“No.”
That shouldn't have hurt.
It did.
“Did she ask about Rachel?”
“Yes.”
Of course she did.
Brooks sat beside my bed.
“We recovered the yellow folder from her motel room.”
My heartbeat jumped.
“Everything?”
“Not everything.”
“What was missing?”
“One page.”
David, standing by the window, looked over.
“Which page?”
“The audit-trigger provision.”
David swore.
That page explicitly explained what happened financially when my daughter was born.
Someone had taken it.
“Your mother claims she doesn't know where it is.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
“There's more.”
Brooks placed a printed photograph on my tray.
Security footage from the motel.
Mom stood beside Dad's truck.
Another man stood with her.
Thomas Vale.
The timestamp was from that afternoon.
My throat tightened.
“They were together.”
“Yes.”
“Where's Dad?”
“We don't know.”
Brooks slid another photograph forward.
Vale handing Mom something.
A large envelope.
“What is that?”
“We don't know.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number again.
Everyone froze.
Brooks motioned for me to answer.
She activated recording equipment.
I swallowed.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then my father's voice.
“Claire.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“Dad.”
Marcus moved closer.
Brooks gestured for me to keep him talking.
“Where are you?”
“That doesn't matter.”
“You're running from police.”
He ignored that.
“Your mother has been arrested because you refused to handle this privately.”
I almost laughed.
“You poisoned me.”
“We did not poison you.”
“Kayla filmed you.”
Silence.
Then Dad exhaled.
“You don't understand what you've done.”
“What I've done?”
“The trust was supposed to protect this family.”
“From what?”
“From people like Marcus.”
Marcus's face hardened.
I gripped the phone.
“My husband called an ambulance while you tried destroying evidence.”
“You've always been naïve.”
“And you've always needed me to believe that.”
Another silence.
For the first time in my life, I wasn't afraid of disappointing him.
That realization gave me strength.
“Where is Thomas Vale?”
Dad's breathing changed.
Brooks leaned closer.
“You should be asking what your grandfather did.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“He created this mess.”
“No. You did.”
“Claire, there are things in that trust you don't understand.”
“Then explain them.”
Dad lowered his voice.
“If your child is born and that audit begins, people will go to prison.”
I stared at Brooks.
She was writing quickly.
“People?”
I asked.
“Who?”
“You don't want to know.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
“Because you're one of them?”
Dad didn't answer.
“Did you put the drug in my lemonade?”
Another pause.
Then something unexpected happened.
He said, “No.”
Not defensive.
Not angry.
Certain.
“Your voice is on the video.”
“I helped your mother.”
“With what?”
“I thought we were making you sick enough to miss the meeting with your lawyer.”
My stomach turned.
“You put drugs in your pregnant daughter's drink to make her sick?”
“I didn't know what Vale gave us.”
Marcus whispered a curse.
Dad continued quickly.
“Your mother didn't either.”
“Rachel knew it could hurt the baby.”
“She suspected.”
“So did Mom.”
“No.”
His voice cracked.
“Claire, listen to me. Vale lied about what it was.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because he didn't give us that medication to scare you.”
The room became still.
“What?”
“He wanted us blamed.”
Brooks's eyes narrowed.
Dad continued.
“By the time I realized what he'd actually given Susan, it was too late.”
“Where are you?”
“Claire, Vale has been taking money from the trust for years.”
David stepped closer.
“How much?” I asked.
“More than we knew.”
“We?”
Dad's silence answered that.
“You and Mom were stealing too.”
“We borrowed.”
I laughed through tears.
“Millions?”
“It wasn't supposed to go this far.”
“But it did.”
“Vale said he could fix everything.”
“By killing my daughter?”
“No!”
Dad sounded desperate.
“That's what I'm trying to tell you. Your baby wasn't the original target.”
I couldn't breathe.
“What does that mean?”
The call crackled.
Then Dad whispered words that froze everyone in the room.
“The trust doesn't only become permanent if your daughter is born.”
I looked at David.
He seemed confused.
Dad continued.
“It transfers immediately if you die while pregnant.”
Marcus's face drained of color.
My fingers went numb around the phone.
“So the medication…”
Dad's voice broke.
“It wasn't meant to kill the baby, Claire.”
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone.
Detective Brooks looked at David.
David was already digging through the trust documents.
Marcus came to my bedside.
“No.”
He shook his head as if refusing reality itself.
“No.”
I looked down at my belly.
All this time I had believed someone wanted my daughter gone because her birth would expose them.
But according to Dad, the truth was darker.
If I died before delivering her, someone else could gain control immediately.
The drug hadn't been chosen only to harm my pregnancy.
It had been given to a pregnant woman whose death could be disguised as a medical emergency.
May you like
I hadn't been carrying the target.
I was the target.
