Chapter 100
No.1
The setting sun cast a blood-red glare across the glass facade of the Manhattan Private Hospital.
In the outdoor drop-off zone, the freezing wind whipped across the pavement. Elisa and Jewel moved with frantic, coordinated speed. Jewel pushed the heavy medical wheelchair. Kayden sat slumped in the seat, her small body wrapped in a thick wool blanket.
They were moving her. Dr. Gottlieb's lockdown was secure, but Elisa refused to take any chances.Alastair had arranged for a private, heavily guarded recovery suite at a secure facility in upstate New York.
Alastair's black armored SUV was idling at the curb,the rear door wide open.
Kayden's head lolled to the side. Her cheeks were flushed a deep, unnatural red. The fever had spiked again,pushing her temperature to a dangerous 104degrees Fahrenheit. Her eyes were half-open,glazed over with the glassy, unfocused stare of severe delirium.
Jewel lifted Kayden from the wheelchair and gently placed her into the back seat of the SUV.Elisa turned to the trunk, lifting a heavy bag of medical supplies.
No.2
Just as Elisa slammed the trunk shut, the hospital's
revolving doors spun wildly.
August Chambers stormed out into the freezing air.His overcoat was unbuttoned, his face a mask of dark, unresolved fury from his encounter with Dr.Gottlieb. Three massive bodyguards trailed closely behind him.
August's black Maybach was parked exactly ten feet behind Alastair's SUV.
August took two steps toward his car. Then,he saw her.
He saw Elisa standing at the rear of the SUV. His footsteps abruptly stopped. The memory of the shredded divorce papers, the humiliating audio recording, and Dr. Gottlieb's public execution all collided in his brain, igniting a massive fireball of rage.
No.3
He altered his path. He marched directly toward Elisa, his heavy shoes slamming against the concrete.
Elisa heard the footsteps. She whipped her head around.
When she saw August bearing down on her, her heart completely stopped beating. A physical jolt of pure terror electrocuted her spine.
She instantly threw her body sideways, slamming her back against the open rear door of the SUV,using her own flesh to physically block his line of sight into the back seat. Her black eyes locked onto his, burning with a desperate, feral warning.
August stopped exactly three feet away. He looked at her defensive posture. He sneered.
"What are you hiding in there, Elisa?" August demanded, his voice a low, vibrating threat."Are you stealing hospital equipment now?"
No.4
Inside the back seat, the loud, aggressive sound of August's voice pierced through Kayden's feverish haze.
The little girl shifted on the leather seat. She turned her head toward the open door. Through the narrow gap between Elisa's body and the doorframe, Kayden saw the back of Elisa's head.
Her brain,boiling at 104 degrees, stripped away all her careful training and secrecy. She just wanted comfort. She reached her tiny, trembling hand out toward the gap.
"Mommy!" Kayden cried out.
The word was high, clear, and laced with absolute,desperate dependency. It rang out across the freezing drop-off zone like a gunshot.
August's entire body went completely rigid.
No.5
It was as if he had been struck by lightning. His breathing stopped. He slowly, mechanically, turned his head. His eyes bypassed Elisa's face and locked onto the narrow gap in the doorway.
August's heart violently seized in his chest.
He stared at the child. He saw the exact shape of his own dark eyes. He saw the sharp, unmistakable curve of his own jawline. The genetic mirror was so
absolute, so terrifyingly precise, that his brain completely short-circuited.
A massive,world-shattering thought attempted to form in his mind: Elisa has a child. But the sheer impossibility of it violently clashed with his reality.His ego, his absolute certainty in his control over his own life, forcefully rejected the data. Impossible,his mind screamed. She was never pregnant. I would have known.
August took a slow, stumbling step forward. His face was pale as a ghost. His voice trembled,completely stripped of its billionaire arrogance,battling the cognitive dissonance tearing his mind apart.
No.6
"What..." August gasped, pointing a shaking finger at the window. "What did she just call you?"
Before Elisa could even open her mouth, a blur of motion exploded fromthe back seat.
Jewel threw her entire body across the leather seats. She grabbed Kayden and violently yanked the child into her chest, burying Kayden's face in her shoulder to break the eye contact.
Jewel looked up at Elisa. Her face was twisted in a mask of absolute, hysterical panic.
"Elisa! Get in the car!" Jewel screamed at the top of her lungs, tears flying from her eyes. "She's at 104 degrees! She's completely hallucinating! She doesn't even recognize me! She's calling her Auntie Mommy again! We have to go!"
The medical logic was flawless. Febrile delirium. A child so sick she couldn't tell her own mother from her godmother.
No.7
Elisa snapped out of her paralysis. She seized the lifeline.
She spun around, grabbed the edge of the heavy armored door, and violently slammed it shut right in August's face.
Elisa threw herself into the front passenger seat.
"Drive!" Elisa roared at the security detail. "Go! Now!"The driver slammed his foot on the gas. The massive engine roared. The SUV tore out of the drop-off zone, its tires screeching against the pavement as it merged recklessly into the Manhattan traffic.
August stood frozen on the curb. A cloud of gray exhaust fumes washed over his expensive coat.
But as August stood there in the dark, the image of those dark, familiar eyes burned into his retinas.He shook his head aggressively, forcing the phantom image away. It was a setup. A trap. She had found a child actor, a look-alike, to manipulate him. It was the only logical explanation. And yet, the resemblance... it was unnervingly perfect. He filed the anomaly away, a piece of corrupted data to be analyzed later. For now, it was a distraction he couldn't afford.