Chapter 2 - SOMEBODY CAME FOR EMMA
The hospital evacuation should have been orderly.
It wasn’t.
Smoke poured from a supply room near the west stairwell.
Nurses rushed children toward emergency exits.
Parents shouted names.
Alarms screamed.
Red lights flashed across white walls.
Marcus stayed beside Emma’s bed.
“No elevators.”
Patricia nodded.
“We use the east stairwell.”
Emma clutched Bunny.
Ruth pushed the wheelchair.
Caroline was supposed to remain with hospital security.
Then Marcus looked back.
She was gone.
“Where is Caroline?”
One guard stared toward the corridor.
“She was right here.”
Marcus swore.
Ruth’s blood ran cold.
“Emma.”
“I’m okay.”
“No matter what happens, stay beside me.”
They reached the stairwell.
Patricia opened the door.
Marcus stopped her.
“Wait.”
“What?”
He looked down.
A plastic wedge had been jammed beneath the door.
Someone had deliberately prevented it from closing.
Marcus pulled it out.
“Someone planned this.”
Ruth looked toward the smoke.
“The fire?”
“Maybe.”
They descended one floor.
Emma suddenly pointed.
“Aunt Ruth.”
“What?”
“That man.”
A man wearing hospital scrubs stood below them.
Blue cap.
Surgical mask.
Hospital identification badge.
Nothing unusual.
Except he was walking upward against the evacuation.
Marcus stepped between him and Emma.
“Hospital staff?”
The man nodded.
“Respiratory.”
“Name?”
“Kevin.”
“Last name?”
The man hesitated.
That was enough.
Marcus reached for him.
The stranger turned and ran.
Marcus chased him down the stairs.
Ruth screamed,
“Marcus!”
A door slammed below.
Marcus disappeared.
Patricia grabbed the wheelchair.
“Keep moving.”
They reached the ground floor.
Police were already arriving.
Firefighters rushed inside.
Patricia pushed Emma toward the emergency department exit.
A woman in a white coat approached.
“Emma Bennett?”
Ruth stopped.
“Yes?”
“We’re transferring her.”
“Where?”
“Lurie.”
Patricia frowned.
“No transfer has been ordered.”
The woman froze.
Ruth saw it.
The woman turned.
Ran.
“Security!”
Two officers chased her.
Emma began crying.
“Why does everybody want me?”
Ruth knelt.
“Look at me.”
Emma did.
“You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Is it because of the money?”
Ruth hesitated.
“What money?”
“Dad’s trust.”
“You mentioned that before.”
Emma wiped her cheek.
“Grandpa said Daddy left something for me.”
“How much?”
Emma shrugged.
“He said it wasn’t about how much.”
Ruth remembered Thomas’s words.
Never trust anyone who tells you money doesn’t change people.
Because it does.
Especially family.
Marcus returned ten minutes later.
The man in scrubs had escaped.
But Marcus had found something.
A disposable phone.
Only one number had been called.
He showed Ruth.
May you like
She recognized it.
Caroline’s.
