Chapter 1 - Ninety Seconds
The pounding outside my hospital room came exactly ninety seconds after I pressed the hidden button beneath my bed.
“Hospital security.
Open immediately.”
My father froze beside the window.
Mark tightened his arms around my newborn son, Noah.
Carla’s face lost every trace of confidence.
My mother stared at me as if I had betrayed them.
Then came the second voice.
“Boise Police Department.
Open the door.”
Dad looked at me.
“What did you do?”
I held Lily against my chest and forced myself to stay calm.
“What Ethan told me to do.”
Four days earlier, I had watched my husband’s casket disappear beneath a curtain at the funeral home.
Now my family was trying to take his son out of my hospital room.
The door opened before Dad could answer.
Two hospital security officers entered first.
Behind them came a uniformed Boise police officer and a tall woman in a dark gray suit.
She did not look at my father.
She looked directly at Mark.
“Put the baby back in the bassinet.”
Mark laughed nervously.
“This is my nephew.”
“I heard what you said through the room monitoring system.”
His smile vanished.
Dad stepped forward.
“This is a private family matter.”
The woman reached into her coat.
“Detective Rebecca Sloan.”
Then she showed her badge.
“This stopped being a private matter when you attempted to remove a newborn while demanding signatures in exchange for his return.”
Carla snatched the folder from my bed.
Detective Sloan saw her.
“Put that down.”
Carla slowly released it.
The folder landed beside my leg.
Temporary guardianship.
Financial authorization.
Medical power of attorney.
Every page already had my information typed in.
Only my signature was missing.
I looked at Dad.
“You prepared these before I gave birth.”
He said nothing.
Mark finally placed Noah back in the bassinet.
The moment his hands left my son, a nurse moved between them and wheeled Noah beside me.
I touched his tiny forehead.
His crying weakened into soft hiccups.
My entire body shook.
Detective Sloan picked up the folder.
She turned one page.
Then another.
Her expression changed.
“Mrs. Walker, did you authorize an attorney named Douglas Crane to prepare these documents?”
“No.”
Dad interrupted.
“She’s exhausted.
She just gave birth.”
The detective ignored him.
“Did you authorize your father to manage Ethan Walker’s estate?”
“No.”
“Did you authorize your brother to become temporary guardian of either child?”
“No.”
Mark cursed under his breath.
Detective Sloan closed the folder.
“That is enough for now.”
Dad finally lost his composure.
“You have no idea what she’s doing.”
I looked at him.
For the first time in my life, I did not feel like his daughter.
I felt like a witness.
“What am I doing, Dad?”
His jaw tightened.
“Destroying this family.”
I almost laughed.
Ethan had been dead for four days.
My father had not hugged me once.
He had not asked whether I had slept.
He had not even looked at Lily until he started talking about Ethan’s estate.
“You came here to take my baby.”
“We came here to protect what belongs to us.”
Detective Sloan turned sharply.
“What belongs to you?”
Dad realized too late what he had said.
Silence filled the room.
Then the woman standing behind the detective stepped forward.
I had not noticed her before.
She was around sixty, dressed in a navy suit, carrying a leather briefcase.
Her eyes were red as if she had been crying.
“Claire.”
I recognized her immediately.
Margaret Ellis.
Ethan’s attorney.
She had handled our wills three years earlier.
I had not seen her since the funeral.
Margaret looked at the folder in Detective Sloan’s hand.
Then she looked at my father.
“You should not have come here.”
Dad went pale.
Margaret opened her briefcase.
“Ethan knew you would.”
She removed a sealed envelope.
My name was written across the front in Ethan’s handwriting.
CLAIRE.
OPEN ONLY IF THEY COME FOR THE CHILDREN.
May you like
My heart stopped.
*
