CHAPTER 2 — SOMETHING IN HER BLOOD
Claire regained consciousness in a private hospital suite two hours later.
Ethan stood beside the bed while Dr. Lena Ortiz studied the test results.
“The baby’s heartbeat is stable,” the doctor said. “There are no immediate signs of serious injury.”
Ethan released the breath he had been holding.
Claire placed both hands over her stomach.
“Then why did I faint?”
Dr. Ortiz hesitated.
“That is what concerns me.”
She turned the tablet toward them.
“We found traces of a powerful sedative in your blood. A dose like this could cause dizziness, confusion and loss of muscle control.”
Claire looked at Ethan.
“The champagne.”
“What champagne?”
“Vanessa brought me a glass before asking me into the hallway. I only took two sips.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
He called the hotel’s security director, Noah Reed, and demanded that no one touch the surveillance footage.
Noah promised to make a copy immediately.
Before Ethan could ask another question, a nurse entered carrying a small metal tray.
“Mrs. Blackwood’s medication,” she said.
Dr. Ortiz frowned.
“I didn’t order anything.”
The woman froze.
Ethan stepped between her and the bed.
“What is in that syringe?”
The nurse suddenly dropped the tray and ran.
Ethan chased her into the corridor, but the emergency stairwell door was already closing. By the time hospital security reached the ground floor, she had vanished through a staff exit.
Her identification badge had been fake.
When Ethan returned, Claire was searching frantically through the belongings the hotel had sent with her.
“My purse is missing.”
“What was inside it?”
Claire looked toward Dr. Ortiz, then lowered her voice.
“A key my mother left me before she died.”
“You never told me about a key.”
“I didn’t know what it opened.”
She reached for her phone.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
There was no greeting and no signature.
The key opens the truth about Daniel Blackwood.
A second message followed immediately.
Vanessa has it now.
Ethan called Vanessa, but her phone went directly to voicemail.
Then Noah Reed called from the hotel.
His voice sounded strained.
“Mr. Blackwood, we have a problem.”
“What happened?”
“I found the camera file. But someone accessed the system before me.”
“Was the footage deleted?”
“Not all of it.”
Noah paused.
“The recording shows Mrs. Blackwood falling. It shows Miss Vale standing beside her. But the eleven seconds before the chair moved have been removed.”
“Who had access?”
“That is what you need to understand. The deletion was authorized from an executive account.”
“Whose account?”
Noah did not answer immediately.
When he finally spoke, his voice had dropped to a whisper.
“The account belongs to your mother.”
At that moment, Claire’s phone vibrated again.
This time, the message included a photograph.
It showed Vanessa leaving the hospital parking garage.
Claire’s missing purse hung over her shoulder.
Walking beside Vanessa was a tall man whose face was hidden beneath a dark hat.
May you like
But Ethan recognized the silver watch on his wrist.
It was the watch his father had been wearing on the day his plane disappeared.
