Chapter 2 - The Heartbeat
The ambulance doors closed before I could hear anything else.
For twenty minutes, the FBI raid disappeared behind sirens, fluorescent lights, and the terrified rhythm of my own breathing.
A paramedic strapped monitors around my abdomen.
The baby's heartbeat filled the ambulance.
Fast.
Steady.
Alive.
I closed my eyes.
Every terrible decision I had made during the previous year suddenly felt insignificant beside that sound.
"Stay with me, Clara."
The paramedic leaned closer.
"Any dizziness?"
"A little."
"Contractions?"
"I don't know."
Then another wave tightened across my stomach.
His expression changed.
"That was one."
I gripped the rail.
"I'm only thirty-four weeks."
"I know."
At the hospital, a team was waiting.
They rushed me upstairs while nurses cut away the side of my dress and examined the bruise already spreading across my abdomen.
A doctor introduced herself as Dr. Patel.
"We're monitoring you for placental abruption and preterm labor."
The words turned my blood cold.
"Is my baby okay?"
"Right now, the heartbeat looks reassuring."
"Right now?"
She met my eyes.
"We need to watch both of you closely."
I spent the next hour staring at a monitor.
Every change in the line looked like disaster.
Every pause in the baby's movement stopped my breath.
Then the door opened.
Julian walked in wearing the same suit he had worn when he hit me.
A lawyer followed him.
I couldn't believe it.
"Get out."
The lawyer raised both hands.
"Mrs. Vance, we only need a few minutes."
"I said get out."
Julian stepped closer.
"You have no idea what you've done."
I looked at him.
"My mistake was marrying you."
His nostrils flared.
"My father's company employs twelve thousand people."
"Then maybe your father shouldn't have used it to commit crimes."
"You gave the FBI company records."
"I gave them evidence."
He lowered his voice.
"If Dad goes down, everything goes down."
"That sounds like his problem."
His lawyer interrupted.
"There are also serious concerns regarding how confidential information was obtained."
I almost smiled.
"You mean the files Arthur discussed at his dinner table?"
Neither man answered.
"The documents Julian left open on our home computer?"
Silence.
"The emails your family printed and left in the study because all of you believed I was too stupid to understand them?"
Julian's face hardened.
"You planned this."
"I documented it."
"You destroyed my family."
I looked at the purple bruise spreading across my stomach.
"You punched yours."
That landed.
For half a second, Julian's eyes moved toward my belly.
I saw fear.
Then pride buried it.
His lawyer pulled a folder from his briefcase.
"We can prevent this situation from becoming more damaging."
I stared at him.
"What situation?"
"A public criminal proceeding against your husband."
He opened the folder.
There was a nondisclosure agreement.
A financial settlement.
A statement describing the assault as an accident.
My laugh came out broken.
"You came into the maternity ward to bribe me."
"No one is bribing you."
"Then what do you call five million dollars?"
Julian leaned toward me.
"A chance to stop making mistakes."
The door opened behind him.
Two police officers entered.
One held a pair of handcuffs.
Julian turned.
The officer looked at me.
"Mrs. Vance, we have the video."
Then he looked at my husband.
"Julian Vance, you're under arrest for aggravated assault."
Julian's lawyer protested.
Julian stared at me.
"You can't do this."
I didn't answer.
The cuffs closed.
As they led him away, my phone vibrated on the bedside table.
It was Agent Reed.
I answered.
"We found the second ledger," she said.
I looked toward the door to make sure Julian was gone.
"Where?"
"Behind a false wall in Beatrice's dressing room."
I felt my pulse rise.
"What's in it?"
Reed was silent for a moment.
"Clara, your father's name is in it."
My fingers went numb.
My father had been dead for six years.
"What did you say?"
"There are payments connected to Daniel Hayes."
I sat up despite the pain.
"Why would Arthur have records about my father?"
"That's what we need to find out."
May you like
Then Reed said the sentence that changed the entire case.
"The first payment was made twelve years before you ever met Julian."
