Chapter 6 - Awakening in the ShadowsZ
The police cruiser screeched to a halt in front of the emergency entrance of St. Jude Hospital. I didn't wait for Detective Miller; I threw the door open and sprinted through the lobby, taking the stairs three at a time up to the third-floor ICU.
When I burst into Room 312, two nurses were adjusting the IV lines. The thick plastic breathing tube had been removed from Emily’s mouth. She lay propped up against two white pillows. Her face was still terribly pale, and her lips were cracked and dry, but her eyes—her warm, beautiful hazel eyes—were open.
“Ethan…” she rasped, her voice barely a dry whisper.
I dropped to my knees beside her bed, burying my face into the mattress and gripping her hand like a dying man clinging to a lifeline.
“Emily… oh God, Emily, you’re awake,” I sobbed, tears flowing freely down my cheeks. I kissed her knuckles, her wrist, her palm. “I thought I lost you. I thought I lost both of you.”
She raised her weak hand and lightly rested her fingertips against my hair. “Noah… where is Noah?”
“He’s downstairs in the NICU,” I said quickly, wiping my eyes. “His fever broke. His kidneys are responding to the fluids. He’s going to be okay, baby. He’s fighting.”
A faint, tearful smile broke across Emily’s cracked lips. “Thank God… thank God…”
Detective Miller stepped quietly into the room, holding a small notepad. “Mrs. Miller, I’m Detective Miller with the state police. I know you’ve just regained consciousness, but we need to ask you a few critical questions regarding what happened over the last four days.”
Emily looked at the detective, then back at me. Her expression hardened, a sudden flash of intense fear and anger entering her eyes.
“Linda…” Emily whispered, her breathing quickening. “She… she wouldn't let me drink the real water, Ethan. She brought me warm liquid in a cup… it tasted sweet and metallic. Every time I drank it, my body felt like it was burning from the inside out.”
“I know, sweetie,” I squeezed her hand. “The police have the water and the formula. They arrested Linda and Ashley.”
Emily let out a long, shuddering sigh, closing her eyes for a moment as if a massive weight had been lifted off her chest. But when she opened her eyes again, she looked directly into mine.
“Ethan… it’s not just Linda and Ashley,” she whispered.
I froze. “What do you mean?”
“Before you left for your business trip… three weeks ago… your father’s lawyer came to see me,” Emily said, her voice shaking with effort.
“Victor Vance?” I asked, astonished. “He came to the hospital earlier today! He told me about Arthur’s 2.4 million dollar trust fund!”
Emily shook her head weakly. “No, Ethan… Vance isn't working for your father’s estate. He was fired by your father two years before he died.”
A sickening chill swept through the room.
“What?” I stammered. “Vance gave me his business card! He told me he was executing Arthur’s trust!”
“Vance… Vance is Linda’s lover,” Emily revealed, a tear slipping down her cheek. “They’ve been sleeping together for years, Ethan. Long before your father died. Your father found out about their affair before he passed away—that’s why he stripped Vance of his power of attorney and wrote the trust fund through a different law firm in Chicago!”
I stood up, my head pounding as if it were about to split open.
Victor Vance. The smooth-talking attorney in the tailored gray suit who had stood in this very room hours ago, pretending to be a neutral legal representative delivering tragic news.
He hadn't come here to inform me. He had come here to assess the situation. He had come to see if Emily was going to die—and to plant seeds in my mind to make sure I didn't question the legal proceedings when Linda filed for custody.
“Detective,” I turned around, my voice trembling with rage. “Victor Vance was here this morning. He knows everything about the trust.”
Detective Miller pulled out his radio instantly. “Dispatch, this is Unit 4. I need an immediate background check and location track on an attorney named Victor Vance. Issue an alert to all units—he may be an accessory to attempted murder and fraud.”
Suddenly, the monitor beside Emily’s bed began to beep erratically.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.
Her heart rate spiked from 85 to 140. She gripped her chest, gasping for air as her eyes rolled back into her head.
“Ethan… my chest… it feels like it’s exploding!” she screamed.
“Doctor! Nurse!” I yelled, panic seizing my lungs again.
Dr. Aris and two nurses rushed into the room, pushing me and Detective Miller back out into the hallway.
“She’s going into acute arrhythmia!” Dr. Aris shouted, pulling out a syringe. “ Get the crash cart! Her sodium levels are spiking dangerously!”
I stood behind the glass window, watching in absolute horror as the medical team fought to stabilize Emily once again. Her body convulsed on the bed as the heart monitor emitted a continuous, terrifying whine.
Detective Miller grabbed my arm, forcing me to look at him. “Ethan, listen to me! Someone altered her IV line while you were downstairs!”
My stomach dropped into a bottomless pit.
“What?” I choked out.
“The attorney—Victor Vance,” Detective Miller said, his eyes sharp and grim. “I checked the hospital security log when I came up. Vance signed into the ICU visitor log thirty minutes ago under a fake doctor’s name. He was in this room while you were outside talking to Mr. Harris!”
He hadn't just come to talk to me earlier. Vance had come back. While I was at my house securing the trash bag, Vance had slipped into Emily’s ICU room disguised as medical staff and injected a lethal dose of concentrated sodium into her IV bag to finish what Linda had started.
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They knew the police were closing in. They were trying to silence Emily before she could speak.
“Find him,” I growled, grabbing Detective Miller’s leather jacket with both hands, my eyes burning with a dark, unhinged vengeance. “Find him before I do. Because if I find him first, there won't be a trial.”
