Chapter 7 - THE NAME GRACE HARTWELL
Backup generators activated.
The operating rooms remained powered.
The hallways did not.
Red emergency lights flickered above the doors.
Victoria’s private security team moved immediately.
Two officers blocked Agent Mercer.
Another grabbed Dr. Keene.
The attorneys ran toward the service elevator.
Victoria disappeared into the darkness.
Ethan pushed through the confusion.
“Where is my daughter?”
A nurse pointed toward the neonatal unit.
“Inside the transport incubator.”
“She was being moved when the power failed.”
Ethan ran.
The neonatal corridor was empty.
The incubator stood near the nurses’ station.
Its transparent cover was open.
The baby was gone.
A tiny hospital blanket lay on the floor.
Ethan stopped breathing.
“No.”
A security camera rotated toward him.
A voice came through the ceiling speaker.
Victoria’s.
“Go to the old surgical wing.”
“Come alone.”
“If I see police, the child will not survive the elevator.”
The old surgical wing had been closed for renovation.
It occupied the building’s eastern tower.
A construction elevator connected it to the roof.
Ethan picked up the blanket.
His daughter’s warmth remained inside it.
Detective Quinn reached him.
“She took the baby?”
Ethan showed her the blanket.
“Victoria wants me alone.”
“You cannot go alone.”
“She threatened the elevator.”
Quinn spoke into her radio.
Static answered.
The hospital communication system had been compromised.
Rosa came from the donation room with a bandage around her arm.
“What happened?”
Ethan could not say it.
Quinn did.
“Victoria took Grace.”
Rosa closed her eyes.
Then she opened them again.
“I know the old wing.”
“I cleaned it before the renovation.”
“There is a service staircase behind the chapel.”
Ethan turned.
“Take Quinn.”
“You are not going alone either.”
“She said no police.”
“I am not police.”
Ethan almost argued.
Then he remembered the terrace.
Rosa had already risked her life once.
He had no right to order courage away from the person who possessed it most.
They split up.
Ethan entered the public corridor toward the old wing.
Rosa and Quinn took the chapel stairs.
Agent Mercer remained with the operating room and detained Victoria’s guards as federal reinforcements arrived.
Ethan reached the old surgical floor.
Plastic sheets hung from the ceiling.
Construction lights cast long shadows through the empty rooms.
The elevator bell rang.
Victoria stood beside the open shaft.
She held Grace in a white hospital blanket.
The baby’s face was barely visible.
A portable oxygen tube rested beneath her nose.
Victoria’s arms looked gentle.
That made the scene more terrifying.
“Give her to me,” Ethan said.
Victoria looked down at the child.
“Grace.”
“So common.”
“So ordinary.”
“That is her name.”
“She is a Hartwell.”
“She is Olivia’s daughter.”
Victoria’s expression hardened.
“And yours.”
“Which means she carries everything your father built.”
“She carries nothing but a right to live.”
Victoria stepped closer to the shaft.
The elevator car waited two floors below.
A narrow steel maintenance platform crossed the opening.
“If you sign the documents, I return her.”
“What documents?”
A folder lay on a construction table.
Ethan opened it.
The first page surrendered his voting rights.
The second transferred guardianship of Grace to Victoria.
The third declared Olivia medically unfit.
“You planned this before the dinner,” he said.
“I plan for every possibility.”
“You pushed my wife over a balcony.”
“I corrected a threat.”
Ethan looked at his daughter.
Grace moved weakly beneath the blanket.
Her oxygen alarm beeped.
“She needs the neonatal unit.”
“Then sign.”
Ethan picked up the pen.
Victoria smiled.
From behind a plastic curtain, Rosa watched.
Detective Quinn held her weapon ready.
Rosa noticed a second figure near the construction lift.
Michael Dane.
The guard who had stepped on the terrace cloth.
He held a control box connected to the elevator brakes.
Victoria had prepared another accident.
Even if Ethan signed, she intended to kill him.
Rosa whispered to Quinn.
“He controls the lift.”
Quinn moved toward Michael.
A piece of broken plaster cracked beneath her shoe.
Michael turned.
He pressed the control button.
The elevator car dropped.
The cable screamed through the shaft.
Victoria lost her balance.
May you like
Grace slipped from her arms.
Ethan lunged.
