Chapter 7 - The Hospital Trap
Emily grabbed the table.
Daniel caught her before she fell.
“Emily?”
Another pain tightened across her stomach.
She gasped.
Michael looked up from Lawson.
“Call an ambulance.”
“No.”
Emily breathed slowly.
“Not yet.”
“You’re eight months pregnant.”
“I know how pregnant I am.”
Another contraction came.
Stronger.
Emily closed her eyes.
Stress.
It could be stress.
It had to be.
Daniel crouched beside her.
“We’re going to the hospital.”
Emily looked at Lawson.
His smile had disappeared.
Something about that bothered her.
He had mentioned a hospital seconds before she began having contractions.
Coincidence?
Maybe.
But nothing felt like coincidence anymore.
Emily looked at Michael.
“Which hospital?”
“St. Matthew’s is closest.”
Lawson smiled again.
There.
Emily saw it.
“No.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“We’re not going to St. Matthew’s.”
Lawson’s expression hardened.
Emily pointed at him.
“He wanted us to.”
Michael understood.
He grabbed Lawson’s phone and searched.
A message thread had been deleted.
Michael recovered recent notifications.
One included three words.
ST. MATTHEW’S READY.
Emily felt another contraction.
Daniel swore.
“Where do we go?”
Emily remembered her father’s independent doctor.
“Mercy General.”
Twenty minutes later, Emily was in a private maternity room.
Two police officers stood outside.
Michael remained downstairs coordinating with detectives.
Daniel sat near the window.
A doctor examined Emily.
“You’re not in active labor.”
Emily exhaled.
“The contractions were caused by stress?”
“Most likely.”
“Your baby’s heart rate looks good.”
Emily finally allowed herself to breathe.
The doctor smiled.
“But I strongly recommend avoiding any more ballrooms tonight.”
Emily almost laughed.
“I’ll try.”
After the doctor left, Daniel closed the door.
“Michael found something.”
Emily sat up.
“What?”
“St. Matthew’s received instructions earlier today to admit you if you arrived.”
Emily stared.
“Instructions from whom?”
“Dr. Marcus Bell.”
“He’s dead.”
“The instructions were sent yesterday.”
Emily’s skin prickled.
“What instructions?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Psychiatric observation.”
Emily stared at him.
“What?”
“According to the documents, you were supposedly experiencing paranoid delusions associated with pregnancy.”
Emily almost laughed.
The cruelty of the plan was breathtaking.
Preston humiliates her publicly.
She becomes emotional.
Her father’s inheritance appears.
She accuses Preston of conspiracy.
Then she is taken to a hospital where paperwork already exists declaring her unstable.
“They were going to discredit me.”
“Yes.”
“And while I was hospitalized?”
Daniel’s face darkened.
“Preston had prepared an emergency petition requesting temporary control of your assets.”
Emily looked toward the window.
This had not been spontaneous.
The ballroom humiliation had been part of something larger.
Preston wanted a public scene.
He wanted witnesses to say Emily became irrational.
Maybe he expected her to scream.
To slap Vanessa.
To collapse.
Instead, she had received her father’s message.
Her father had anticipated it.
That was why the attorneys were waiting.
Arthur knew Preston’s pattern.
Emily whispered,
“My father knew tonight would happen.”
Daniel nodded.
“He knew Preston was planning something during the gala.”
“How?”
“We intercepted an email.”
Emily turned.
“What email?”
Daniel handed her his phone.
The message was from Preston to Dr. Bell.
TONIGHT SHOULD BE ENOUGH.
AFTER SHE BREAKS PUBLICLY, WE MOVE.
Emily read it twice.
“When was this sent?”
“Three days ago.”
Emily handed back the phone.
“He planned to break me.”
“Yes.”
Her own husband had turned humiliation into a legal strategy.
Emily felt something inside her harden permanently.
Her phone vibrated.
Nathaniel.
“I’m at the hospital.”
Emily frowned.
“How did you know which one?”
“Daniel texted me.”
She looked at Daniel.
He nodded.
“Come up.”
Five minutes later, the door opened.
Emily saw her brother for the first time.
Nathaniel Harrington looked like their father.
Not exactly.
But enough.
Same eyes.
Same way of standing perfectly still when assessing a room.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Nathaniel looked at her belly.
“You okay?”
Emily nodded.
“You?”
“No.”
His daughter was missing.
The awkwardness between them vanished.
Nathaniel approached.
“I brought the original page.”
He removed an envelope from inside his coat.
Emily took it.
Arthur’s handwriting covered both sides.
At the bottom was another note.
Emily read aloud.
“Preston believes Meridian is money.”
“He is wrong.”
Nathaniel looked at Daniel.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Emily kept reading.
“Meridian’s true value is not the assets.”
“It is what those assets control.”
Nathaniel leaned closer.
Below that was a list.
Satellites.
Data centers.
Patents.
Secure communication systems.
Government contracts.
Emily looked up.
“My father owned all this?”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Through subsidiaries.”
Nathaniel whispered,
“That’s why Preston wanted Meridian.”
Not billions.
Access.
Influence.
Information.
Then Emily’s phone rang.
Vanessa.
Emily answered.
“Where is Sophie?”
Vanessa was crying.
“I can help you.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then you’re useless to me.”
“Wait.”
Emily remained silent.
Vanessa whispered,
“Preston is going to kill me.”
Nathaniel stepped closer.
Emily activated speakerphone.
“Why?”
“Because Dr. Bell kept copies.”
“Copies of what?”
“Everything.”
“Where?”
Vanessa breathed rapidly.
“He gave them to me.”
Emily looked at Nathaniel.
“Why would he trust you?”
“He didn’t.”
“I stole them.”
“Where are they?”
A noise sounded on Vanessa’s end.
She gasped.
“Vanessa?”
“Someone’s here.”
“Where are you?”
“Regency Tower.”
“Suite 1804.”
Then a door crashed open.
May you like
Vanessa screamed.
The line went dead.
