CHAPTER 18 — EARLY LABOR
The first contraction struck at 3:17 a.m.
Khloe gripped the bedrail and tried to breathe through it.
The second came four minutes later.
By the third, Dr. Reed was already preparing the operating room.
“The trauma has triggered early labor.”
“I’m only thirty-one weeks.”
“I know.”
“Can you stop it?”
“We’re trying.”
Gabriel stood beside her.
Marcus waited outside under guard.
Khloe looked toward the glass wall.
“Let him in.”
Gabriel frowned.
“This is not the time.”
“He may never see his daughter born.”
Marcus entered wearing hospital scrubs.
He approached slowly.
Khloe held out her hand.
He took it.
For several minutes, they were not billionaire heirs, betrayed spouses, or suspects.
They were two terrified people listening to their child’s weakening heartbeat.
“I’m sorry,” Marcus whispered.
Khloe closed her eyes.
“That won’t save her.”
“No.”
Another contraction tore through her body.
Dr. Reed checked the monitor.
“We have to deliver now.”
The operating team rushed Khloe down the corridor.
Marcus ran beside the stretcher until the doors closed.
Gabriel remained outside.
The surgery lasted twenty-eight minutes.
Then a sound came through the operating room.
A tiny cry.
Marcus covered his face.
Gabriel gripped the wall.
Dr. Reed emerged holding a newborn girl small enough to fit against her forearm.
“She’s alive.”
Marcus began to cry.
But before he could approach, a nurse noticed something wrong.
The identification bracelet printed for the baby did not say BABY THORNE.
It said:
SUBJECT H-2 — TRANSFER AUTHORIZED
An orderly wearing a surgical mask appeared at the end of the corridor with an empty incubator.
When security called out, he ran.
May you like
The hospital went into lockdown again.
Someone had planned to steal Khloe’s daughter immediately after birth.
