Chapter 9: The Empty Incubator
Daniel ran to the incubator.
The blanket was there.
The wires were there.
Hope was gone.
“No!” Emily screamed from the hallway. “No, no, no!”
Daniel grabbed the nearest nurse. “Where is my daughter?”
“I don’t know! We turned for one second!”
Detective Lane shouted, “Seal every exit!”
Clara cried from the floor. “Victoria planned this. She said hospitals are easy if people panic.”
Daniel turned on her. “Which exit?”
“The service elevator. It goes to the laundry dock.”
Michael grabbed his crutch. “I know that route.”
“You can barely stand,” Daniel said.
“Then carry me, but I’m going.”
Emily tried to rise from the wheelchair. “I’m coming too.”
Daniel knelt before her. “You just had surgery.”
“That is my child.”
“I will bring her back.”
Emily held his face. “Do not come back without her.”
Daniel nodded and ran with Lane and Michael.
In the basement, laundry carts lined the corridor.
A faint baby cry echoed.
Daniel froze. “Hope?”
Another cry came from inside a rolling linen bin.
He pulled back the sheets.
Empty.
A phone was inside, playing a recording of a baby crying.
Lane cursed. “Trap.”
The service elevator doors opened behind them.
A man in a security uniform raised a gun.
Michael shouted, “Down!”
Lane fired first. The man dropped the weapon and fell wounded.
Daniel kicked the gun away. “Who took my daughter?”
The man grinned through pain. “Ask Grandma.”
Daniel grabbed his collar. “Where is Victoria?”
“Gone.”
Lane searched him and found a key card.
Michael looked at it. “That’s for the old Hart estate.”
Daniel’s face tightened. “She took Hope home.”
His phone buzzed.
A photo appeared.
Hope was wrapped in a white blanket beside Victoria’s hand.
The message said: SIGN OVER YOUR SHARES, AND SHE LIVES.
Daniel called the number.
Victoria answered immediately. “You always were emotional.”
“You touch her, and I swear—”
“You will do nothing. Bring the transfer papers to the estate.”
“Emily is her mother.”
“Emily is a problem.”
Daniel’s voice cracked. “Mom, she’s a baby.”
“She is a key. Nothing more.”
Michael whispered, “Keep her talking.”
Daniel said, “What did Dad see in you?”
Victoria went silent.
Then she said, “Your father was weak too.”
Michael’s face went pale. “Ask her.”
Daniel frowned. “Ask what?”
Michael whispered, “Ask her how Dad really died.”
Daniel repeated it.
May you like
Victoria laughed once.
Then she said, “Bring the papers, or your daughter joins him.”
