Chapter 2 - The Emergency Room
The screeching sirens of the ambulance pierced the quiet suburban afternoon.
Claire floated in and out of consciousness.
She felt cold hands pressing against her skin.
She heard the panicked voices of paramedics.
“Heart rate is dropping! Mother is hemorrhaging!”
Evan was in the front of the ambulance.
She could hear him crying.
Fake tears.
He was playing the devastated, terrified husband for the medics.
“Please, save my wife! She just tripped and fell!”
Claire’s jaw clenched, but she was too weak to speak.
She tripped and fell.
That was his story.
The ambulance slammed to a halt.
Doors flew open.
Bright, blinding hospital lights replaced the dim interior.
Nurses swarmed her.
A doctor with kind eyes leaned over.
“Claire, can you hear me? We have to get the baby out now.”
She managed a single, weak nod.
“Save her,” Claire gasped out.
“Save my daughter.”
The doors to the operating room swung shut.
Evan was left outside in the hallway.
The anesthesia hit her veins like ice.
For an hour, Claire drifted in a dark void.
She dreamed of the blue folder.
She dreamed of the words: Effective Before Child’s Birth.
They needed her to sign it so Evan would get total control.
Control of her trust fund.
Control of the baby.
The payout from the life insurance.
Suddenly, a sound broke through the darkness.
A cry.
A loud, angry, beautiful wail.
Claire’s eyes fluttered open in the recovery room.
A nurse was smiling down at her.
“You have a beautiful little girl, Claire. She’s strong.”
Tears spilled down Claire’s cheeks.
She had survived.
Her daughter had survived.
The game had just changed.
Evan thought he had a submissive, broken wife.
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He had no idea what he had just created.
A mother with nothing to lose.
