Chapter 2 - The Hallway Ultimatum
Beatrice didn't leave quietly. She backed toward the doorway like a cornered animal, casting venomous glances at me, at Caleb, and finally at the charge nurse.
"You'll regret this, Caleb!" Beatrice hissed, her voice vibrating with malice as she gripped her designer handbag like a weapon. "When you realize she’s been lying to you about everything—just like her mother—don't come crying to me!"
She spun on her heel and stormed out into the corridor, her heels clicking furiously against the linoleum. My mother made a small, pathetic sound of distress and shuffled toward the door after her, pausing as if waiting for Caleb to call her back.
He didn't say a word. He just stared at the wall until the sound of my mother's footsteps faded into the distance.
The security officers lingered for a moment, exchanging a brief nod with the charge nurse before stepping back out into the hallway to monitor the perimeter. The door slid shut, leaving a heavy, suffocating silence in its wake.
Caleb turned slowly back toward my bed. He looked ten years older than he had when he walked out of the room twenty minutes ago to grab my overnight bag. The dark circles under his eyes, the stress lines around his mouth—it all suddenly made terrifying sense. He hadn't just been working late at the office these past few months; he had been fighting a quiet, losing war against his mother's relentless interference in our lives.
He sank down into the chair beside my bed, burying his face in his hands.
"Elena," he whispered, his voice muffled by his palms. "I am so, so sorry."
I didn't answer right away. I couldn't. The pain in my abdomen flared up every time I tried to sit up, but the pain in my chest was infinitely worse. I looked at the red, swollen imprint of my mother's hand still visible on my cheek in the vanity mirror across the room.
"You didn't know she was coming here," I managed to say, my voice raspy and thin.
"I told her the hospital address," Caleb said, looking up, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "I thought... God, I thought she just wanted to see her grandchild like a normal mother. I didn't know she brought that stuff with her. I swear to you, Elena, I had no idea."
"She wanted to destroy me, Caleb," I whispered, hot tears finally spilling over my lashes. "She wanted you to look at your newborn son and feel disgust before you even held him. If the nurse hadn't walked in when she did... what would you have thought?"
Caleb flinched as if I had struck him. He reached out, his trembling fingers wrapping gently around my hand. "I would have looked at him and seen my son. Because I know you, Elena. I know who you are."
"Do you?" I pulled my hand gently out of his grip, letting it fall back onto the blanket. "Because my own mother didn't even hesitate to hit me. Twenty-nine years of love, and the second Beatrice whispered a lie, she chose her side."
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Before Caleb could reply, the door to the nursery bay opened, and the second nurse walked in carrying a bundle wrapped in a clean, pale-blue receiving blanket.
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