Chapter 15 - Labor
Claire went into labor at 1:13 the next morning.
No warning. No dramatic speech. Just a hard contraction that woke her from sleep, followed by another six minutes later.
The attending physician examined her and said, "We're not stopping this now."
Claire gripped Rosa's hand. "He's too early."
"He's strong," Rosa said. "Like his mother."
Evelyn stood outside the room with Agent Ward. Maya handled court filings from a chair near the window.
For the first time in days, Daniel and Eleanor were nowhere near Claire.
That should have felt safe.
It did not.
At 3:40 a.m., a nurse entered and said a man claiming to be Claire's brother was demanding access.
"I don't have a brother."
Ward moved immediately.
The man vanished before security reached the lobby.
At 4:05, the hospital received a bomb threat.
The maternity floor began a controlled evacuation.
Claire stared at the nurse. "No."
"We have to move."
"This is them."
"We still have to move."
Ward assigned agents to Claire's bed as staff wheeled her through a service corridor.
Halfway to the secured wing, the lights dimmed.
Claire almost laughed from disbelief.
"Again?"
Then a fire alarm sounded.
Sprinklers burst overhead.
Chaos followed.
Patients cried. Staff shouted room numbers. Water turned the tile slick.
A man in scrubs pushed toward Claire's bed.
Ward intercepted him.
He ran.
Evelyn tackled him into a linen cart.
"Been waiting twelve years to hit somebody from this family's payroll," she snapped.
The man was Peter Vale.
He had entered with a stolen employee badge.
The bomb threat was fake.
The fire alarm had been triggered manually.
But Claire's labor was not fake.
By 5:30, the baby's heart rate began dropping.
The physician looked at Claire. "We need to do a C-section."
Claire nodded. "Do it."
As they wheeled her toward surgery, Maya ran beside the bed.
"Claire, Ward found Pike."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
Maya hesitated.
"In Eleanor's car."
Claire stared at her.
"He says Eleanor is inside this hospital."
May you like
The operating-room doors opened.
And somewhere down the hallway, a woman screamed.
