Chapter 7 - The Hospital Bracelet
Mercy Lakeside admitted me at 2:08 a.m.
By 2:11, Roman's people were already calling the front desk.
"No visitors except Margaret Doyle and Marcus Hale," I told the nurse.
"Your husband?"
"Especially not my husband."
The nurse did not blink. She simply typed.
"Would you like us to make you confidential in the system?"
"Yes."
The simple question nearly made me cry. Someone had asked what I wanted and treated the answer like it mattered.
My contractions were real but irregular. Dr. Ruiz said stress might have pushed my body into early labor, though she could not promise the baby would come that night.
"Thirty-six weeks and change," she said. "We monitor closely. You focus on breathing."
"I'm terrible at breathing."
"Everyone is, until they need to be good at it."
Margaret sat beside me holding my hand.
At three, Marcus returned from the hallway.
"Roman is downstairs."
"How did he find me?"
"He called hospitals until somebody slipped."
"Can he come up?"
"Not unless you permit it."
The door opened.
I tensed, but it was a woman in a navy suit with a laptop bag.
"Savannah Carter? I'm Miriam Cole. Your father retained my firm years ago. Marcus called me."
I almost laughed at the absurd timing. "Of course he did. Apparently my dead father planned Christmas better than my husband."
Miriam sat beside the bed and reviewed the papers from the safe.
Her expression changed after three pages.
"Did you sign a proxy?"
"No."
"Did you authorize Roman to pledge your trust shares?"
"No."
"Then we have a problem."
"Roman has a problem."
Miriam looked at me over her glasses. "That's the right correction."
She opened her laptop.
"The board meets in forty-eight hours. If Northstar requires seventy-five percent approval, Roman cannot reach it without your shares. We can notify the board tonight that no proxy exists and any document claiming otherwise is disputed."
"Do it."
"He will know immediately."
"Good."
Miriam sent the notice at 3:26 a.m.
At 3:28, every light in my room went dark.
May you like
The machines switched to battery power.
And from the hallway came the sound of someone shouting my name.
