Chapter 9 - The Doctor's Whisper

I jumped up, my heart lodging in my throat.

The lead surgeon walked out, pulling her surgical mask down. Her brow was furrowed, her scrubs splattered with traces of fluid.

"Doctor? Are they...?" I couldn't finish the sentence.

"Your daughter is alive, Mr. Vance. Five pounds, eight ounces. She’s in the NICU on supplemental oxygen, but her vitals are stabilizing rapidly."

A breath I didn't know I was holding exploded from my lungs, and tears blurred my vision. "And Anna? How is Anna?"

The doctor’s expression darkened. She took a step closer and lowered her voice.

"Anna is in recovery. She survived the surgery. But Mr. Vance... we performed a full physical evaluation when she was under anesthesia."

The pit of my stomach bottomed out. "What did you find?"

"She has deep linear bruising along her upper arms, consistent with someone gripping her with excessive force repeatedly over weeks," the doctor said, looking straight into my eyes. "Her blood toxicology also revealed low-grade traces of toxic herbal alkaloids. Not enough to kill her instantly, but enough to induce chronic nausea, severe cramping, and elevate her blood pressure to near-fatal levels. If she had ingested that tea for another forty-eight hours, she would have suffered uterine rupture."

I gripped the back of the waiting room chair so hard the vinyl tore under my nails.

"She was poisoning her slowly," I whispered, the horrific reality crashing over me like a tidal wave. "Evelyn wanted the baby to die... or Anna to die."

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"Whoever did this knew exactly what dosage would mimic natural preeclampsia," the doctor said sternly. "A medical social worker and a police detective are already waiting outside Anna's recovery room. We are documenting everything for court."

"Good," I snarled through clenched teeth. "Because I'm going to make sure she burns for every single bruise."