Chapter 18 - The Hospital Lockdown
We went to Northwestern under assumed names.
Ortiz locked down the maternity floor. Marco checked every nurse badge twice. Rebecca carried the trust documents in a bag she never put down.
The contractions came fast.
I was terrified.
Not of pain.
Of losing control again.
Dominic stayed beside me in scrubs, one hand wrapped around mine.
“If anyone tries to move either baby without me seeing them, I scream,” I said.
“You scream, I break the door.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
Hours passed.
The first baby arrived just before dawn.
A girl.
For one impossible second, every investigation, every threat, and every ugly secret disappeared. She made a thin, furious sound and kicked one tiny foot beneath the blanket. The nurse laughed softly and said, “She has opinions already.” I touched the side of her face with one finger. Dominic stood beside me with tears running openly down his cheeks, not trying to hide them from anyone. “Sofia,” I whispered. He nodded. We had picked the name during a quiet Sunday breakfast months before everything went wrong. Hearing it now felt like finding a piece of our old life buried under the wreckage.
Tiny. Furious. Alive.
I cried when they placed her against my chest.
“Hi,” I whispered. “I’m your mom. I’m sorry the world is insane.”
Dominic bent over us and closed his eyes.
Then the monitor changed.
The second baby’s heart rate dropped.
The room moved at once.
“Operating room,” the doctor said.
My daughter was lifted away.
“Where are you taking her?” I shouted.
“NICU. Your husband can follow.”
“No.” I grabbed Dominic’s wrist. “Stay with me.”
He looked torn.
Marco appeared at the doorway. “I’ll go.”
Dominic nodded.
They rushed me toward surgery.
As we entered the hall, a nurse in blue scrubs stepped out of a side corridor with a covered bassinet.
Marco stopped.
“Which baby is that?”
The nurse froze.
Then she ran.
Marco chased her.
The bassinet rolled sideways and hit the wall.
Under the blanket was no baby.
There was a pistol.
The nurse pulled another weapon from her waistband.
Security tackled her before she fired.
Ortiz ripped off the woman’s hospital badge.
Fake.
Then Marco’s radio crackled.
“NICU to security. We have an unauthorized transfer request for Baby Moretti.”
Dominic looked at me.
May you like
Our daughter had been in the world less than ten minutes.
And Kane was already trying to take her.
