Chapter 5 - The Glass Wall
The regional hospital smelled of industrial bleach and wet rain. Daniel ran through the automatic double doors, his trench coat soaked from the sudden downpour, his lungs burning. Security guards moved to intercept him, but he flashed his corporate identification, his voice commanding and desperate.
"Where is she? Room 402! Where is she?!"
"Sir, you cannot run in the ICU corridor—" a nurse attempted to intervene, but Daniel pushed through the swinging doors into the specialized maternal care wing.
At the end of the long white hallway, seated on a plastic bench under the humming fluorescent tubes, sat Clara. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her cardigan covered in dried hospital coffee stains. Beside her stood a tall doctor holding a medical chart.
"Where is my wife?" Daniel demanded, stopping in front of Clara, his chest heaving. "What happened to my daughter?"
Clara looked up. She did not raise her voice. She did not slap him, though Daniel almost wished she would. She simply looked through him with a gaze so filled with pity and disgust that it stopped him dead in his tracks.
"You are not her husband anymore, Mr. Sterling," Clara said quietly. "She signed the dissolution papers. She left the ring. You have no legal standing in this room."
"I am the father of that child!" Daniel choked out, step stepping toward the closed door of Room 402. "I have every legal right to—"
The doctor stepped between Daniel and the door, holding up a calm, authoritative hand. "Mr. Sterling, if you cause a disturbance, I will have security remove you immediately. Your wife suffered a massive placental abruption brought on by extreme emotional stress and elevated blood pressure. She survived emergency surgery, but she is heavily sedated."
Daniel’s knees felt like water. "And the baby? Tell me about my baby."
The doctor hesitated, exchanging a brief glance with Clara. "A baby girl was delivered via emergency cesarean forty minutes ago. She is two pounds, four ounces. She is currently in the neonatal intensive care unit under strict isolation."
"Can I see her?" Daniel pleaded, tears finally breaking past his defenses and tracking through the stubble on his cheeks. "Please. Just let me see her through the glass."
"Amy’s advance medical directive was filed three weeks ago through her independent attorney," the doctor stated gravely. "It explicitly bars Daniel Sterling and any member of the Sterling family from visiting, accessing records, or making medical decisions for either the patient or the newborn infant."
Daniel felt as though the floor had vanished beneath him. "She... she banned me?"
"She knew who you were long before you figured it out yourself," Clara whispered, standing up to face him. "She knew that if she stayed, you would use that innocent baby as a bargaining chip for your boardrooms and your society dinners. She sacrificed her own home to protect her child from you."
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Daniel stepped toward the reinforced glass window looking into Room 402. Through the narrow opening between the blinds, he could see Amy. She looked impossibly small in the enormous hospital bed, surrounded by monitors and IV drips, her face as white as the linens.
Suddenly, the monitor beside Amy's bed began to emit a rapid, high-pitched alarm. Nurses rushed inside, shouting codes, as the privacy blinds were violently snapped shut in Daniel's face.
