Chapter 4 - The Fragile Thread
""Doctor,"" David stammered, dropping the phone onto the plastic hospital chair without hanging up. ""Tell me she’s okay.""
Dr. Angela Morris pulled down her surgical mask, revealing tired, deeply set lines around her mouth. ""Your wife suffered a severe concussion and blunt trauma to her lumbar spine. We’ve managed to stop the primary internal hemorrhage, but her condition remains critical. She’s currently in a medically induced coma to reduce brain swelling.""
David swallowed hard, the air catching in his throat like broken glass. ""And the baby? Please... tell me our baby survived.""
Dr. Morris hesitated, a subtle gesture that made David’s stomach drop into a void. ""There is still a fetal heartbeat, Mr. Vance. It’s weak, but it’s there. However, the placenta suffered a partial abruption from the impact. The next forty-eight hours will decide everything. If the abruption widens, we will face an impossible choice between Clara’s life and the pregnancy.""
David covered his mouth with his trembling hands, leaning his forehead against the cool wall. A fragile thread. That was all that held his world together.
""Can I see her?"" he asked quietly.
""Only for a few minutes once she’s moved to the Intensive Care Unit,"" Dr. Morris replied gently. ""You should clean yourself up first.""
David walked like a ghost toward the restroom down the hall. In the mirror, he hardly recognized himself. The hollow shadows under his eyes and the crimson smear across his gray shirt made him look like a survivor of a battlefield. As he scrubbed his hands under the scalding water, his phone vibrated against the ceramic sink.
It was a text from an unknown number.
May you like
Drop the statement, David. Look outside your window.
David froze. He hurried back into the corridor and approached the large panoramic window at the end of the hall, looking down three stories onto the parking lot. Parked directly beneath the streetlamp was a sleek black sedan with tinted windows. Standing beside it was Evelyn’s personal attorney, Arthur Sterling, looking directly up at the glass while speaking into a phone.
