Chapter 3: The Child Victoria Tried to Silence
The emergency room smelled of disinfectant and fear.
Daniel pushed Emily through the hospital entrance while nurses rushed to help her.
A doctor recognized her immediately.
"Emily!"
"We've been trying to reach you for hours!"
She burst into tears.
"My son..."
The doctor's expression darkened.
"He's alive."
"But only because another family paid for the emergency surgery."
Emily collapsed into sobs.
Daniel quietly stepped aside.
Then the doctor frowned.
"You never answered my question."
"What question?"
"The woman who came earlier."
"She said she was your employer."
Emily slowly looked up.
"My employer?"
"Yes."
"She came into your son's room."
"She demanded we stop calling you."
Daniel's heart skipped.
"What did she say?"
The doctor hesitated.
"She told us..."
"...that if the boy died, it would solve everyone's problems."
Emily covered her mouth in horror.
Daniel's hands curled into fists.
The doctor continued.
"She also offered this hospital fifty thousand dollars if we stopped contacting you during your shift."
The hallway became completely silent.
Daniel felt sick.
His wife hadn't just been cruel.
She had deliberately tried to keep a dying child away from his own mother.
At that moment Daniel's phone vibrated.
His security chief.
"Sir..."
"You need to come home."
"We found something in the security system."
"What?"
"The nursery cameras were deleted."
"...but our backup server recovered everything."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Don't let anyone leave the house."
Then the security chief added one sentence that made Daniel stop breathing.
"Sir..."
May you like
"The footage doesn't begin today."
"It begins six months ago."
