CHAPTER 8: SABOTAGE
The news spread through the hospital within hours.
The elevator had been deliberately stopped.
A mechanical override inside the control room had locked the emergency brake.
Whoever activated it knew exactly what they were doing.
More disturbing was the timing.
The elevator stopped less than one minute after Amelia and Claire entered together.
Ethan sat in a police interview room at the hospital.
Detective Olivia Grant placed photographs on the table.
“Do you recognize this man?”
The image showed the person in the dark jacket entering the service corridor.
“No.”
“Could it be you?”
“No.”
“You admitted visiting Claire’s room.”
“I left before midnight.”
“Can anyone confirm that?”
“The bartender saw me downstairs.”
“We are checking.”
The detective placed another photograph beside the first.
This image had been taken inside the hotel parking garage.
The man in the cap stood near Ethan’s truck.
“Your vehicle left the garage at 12:31 a.m.”
“I wasn’t driving it.”
“Who had your keys?”
Ethan stared at the photograph.
“I don’t know.”
At the same time, Amelia received another anonymous message.
It contained a ten-second audio file.
She pressed play.
Claire’s voice filled the hospital room.
“Once the elevator stops, Ethan will come running.”
Then an unknown man answered.
“And the wife?”
Claire laughed softly.
“She’ll finally understand that she was never his first choice.”
The recording ended.
Mara immediately called Detective Grant.
Amelia replayed the audio.
Claire had clearly known the elevator would stop.
But she had also entered it.
Why would someone deliberately trap herself for seven hours?
Unless the plan had gone wrong.
Or unless Claire had expected to be rescued much sooner.
A third message arrived.
This time there was no recording.
Only four words.
CLAIRE WAS NOT ALONE.
Amelia looked toward the NICU.
Someone had watched her for weeks.
Someone knew about Ethan’s affair.
Someone knew the elevator would stop.
And someone was still close enough to deliver messages directly to the hospital.
The lights inside the NICU suddenly flickered.
An alarm began to sound.
Amelia stood.
“Theo!”
May you like
A nurse rushed toward the infant’s incubator.
Then the entire floor went dark.
