Chapter 18 - The Longest Minute
The operating room was too bright and too cold.
Claire's hand found mine beneath the lights.
"Don't look scared," she whispered.
"I'm trying."
"You're terrible at it."
Dr. Patel said the baby's heart rate was showing repeated distress. They needed to deliver him quickly.
After that, everything happened at once.
I talked because silence felt dangerous. I reminded Claire of our first awful date, our rain-soaked wedding rehearsal, the morning she showed me two pink lines and made me take three more tests because she didn't trust the first one.
Then Dr. Patel said, "Here he comes."
I waited for a cry.
Nothing.
One second.
Two.
Three.
"Why isn't he crying?"
A neonatal team moved around a tiny body across the room.
Claire tried to lift her head.
"Adrian?"
"They're helping him."
Her eyes filled.
Then a sound cut through the room.
Small.
Furious.
Perfect.
Our son cried.
A nurse brought him close for one brief moment before taking him for breathing support and monitoring.
He was tiny, red-faced, and alive.
I kissed Claire's forehead.
"You did it."
"We did it."
Later, in the hallway, Ramirez waited with a sealed evidence bag.
Inside was a flash drive.
"We found this in your mother's purse," he said. "There's a video on it."
"Of what?"
May you like
His expression was grim.
"Your mother explaining exactly what she planned to do with your wife and baby."
