Chapter 7
"Claire, please, don't do this!" Luke begged from the floor, his voice breaking as Marcus hauled him upright by his collar. "If we go down there without a tactical team, they will kill all of us! You don't know who these people are! They aren't common criminals—they're an underground organ and surrogacy syndicate!"
"Then you should have thought about that before you made a deal with them to save your pathetic skin!" Claire spat, her knuckles whitening around the cold steel of the IV pole.
"Mrs. Mercer, stay here with your son," Officer Marcus said firmly, drawing his sidearm from its holster. "My partner and I will clear the sub-basement. We have backup arriving from the city precinct in five minutes."
"Five minutes is four minutes too late!" Claire retorted, her breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps as the pain flared across her pelvis. "Look at the text message! They said 02:00. It is 01:54 right now! In six minutes, they will burn the evidence and run through the service tunnels!"
Camille looked between the bleeding mother and the arrested father. A sudden, determined resolve settled over the young nurse's face. She turned to the bassinet, pulling the light blanket away from the child inside.
"Wait," Camille said, her eyes widening as she examined the baby left behind in the acrylic cot. "Look at this child's blanket. Look at the monogramming on the corner."
Claire paused, turning her head despite the agony tearing through her core. "What is it?"
Camille held up the edge of the fine linen. Embroidered in discreet silver thread beneath the hospital logo were the initials: V.H. III.
Marcus’s jaw dropped. "V.H.? As in Victoria Hayes? The state senator's daughter?"
"Senator Hayes' daughter gave birth on the sixth floor VIP wing this morning," Camille said, her voice dropping to a horrified whisper. "The entire floor has private security. How on earth did they get this child down here?"
Luke’s eyes bulged in utter horror. He slumped against the guard’s grip, his knees buckling. "No... no, that's impossible... She told me the baby was an orphan from an unregulated clinic... She said it was an abandoned newborn..."
"You fool!" Claire cried out, lunging forward and slapping Luke across the face with her free hand, the impact echoing through the small room. "You didn't just sell our daughter—they used you as a decoy to kidnap the grandchild of the most powerful politician in the state! They switched Victoria Hayes' baby with June so the VIP floor wouldn't notice the missing infant until morning!"
"Oh God," Luke whimpered, sinking his head into his chest. "They set me up. If the police found this baby in our room, I would take the fall for the kidnapping of a senator's heir, while they walked away with June clean."
Eli stepped forward, his small fingers pointing toward the bassinet. "Mommy... the baby is waking up."
May you like
The newborn in the cart stirred, letting out a small, pitiful whimper.
"Marcus," Claire said, her voice dead, steady, and terrifyingly cold. "You take that baby and secure her with the nurse. But you give me the keycard from Luke's pocket. Right now."
