CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 6
The officers pulled Julian from the room while he was still trying to order people around.
Nobody obeyed him.
That was when he truly broke.
Not when the recording played. Not when the board chair suspended him. Not when the officers touched his arms.
He broke when he realized the room no longer belonged to him.
Chloe watched him disappear through the door, tears sliding down her face without sound.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
I turned back to her.
“For what?”
“For not telling you.”
I brushed damp hair from her forehead.
“Sweetheart, fear makes people quiet. That doesn’t make it your fault.”
The technician, still shaken, asked softly if Chloe wanted to continue.
Chloe looked at the monitor.
The baby moved.
Small. Alive. Untouched by Julian’s name, his threats, his empire.
For the first time all morning, Chloe reached toward the screen.
“That’s my baby,” she whispered.
“Yes,” I said. “And you’re both coming home with me.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“We’ll move her care to another hospital immediately,” she said. “A protected transfer. Private security. New physician. No contact with him.”
Chloe looked at me, terrified hope rising in her eyes.
“He won’t be in the delivery room?”
“No,” I said.
She began to cry harder then.
May you like
Not from fear.
From the strange pain of finally being believed.
