Chapter 1 - The Emergency Room Call
The fluorescent lights of the Riverside Methodist emergency wing buzzed with a sharp, sterile hum that seemed to bore straight into Emily’s temples. Around her, the frantic movements of nurses pushing rolling supply carts and monitoring equipment faded into a dull, distant blur. All she could hear was the ragged, desperate rhythm of her own breathing.
Patricia took half a step forward, her manicured fingers twitching nervously against the hem of her designer blouse. Despite the sterile panic of a hospital trauma unit, her eyes remained remarkably cold, calculating every micro-expression on Emily’s face.
"Emily, be reasonable," Patricia murmured, her voice tight and forced into a soothing maternal pitch that made Emily’s stomach turn. "Families don't wash their dirty laundry in public. You're upset. We're all upset. Tell Dr. Blake you stumbled in the hallway while carrying the baby."
Daniel stepped between his mother and Emily, his face pale, his eyes darting back and forth between his grieving wife and the impassive physician standing in the doorway of trauma bay two.
"Emily... is she right?" Daniel asked, his voice cracking with a mixture of fear and cowardly desperation. "Did you trip? Mom said you were half-asleep and rocking her too hard..."
Emily didn't scream. She didn't cry. The tears that had flooded her vision moments ago had frozen into a sheet of absolute, unyielding ice.
She lifted her phone, unlocked the screen with a steady thumb, and tapped the keypad.
"What are you doing?" Daniel asked, stepping closer. "Who are you calling?"
"Not your mother," Emily said, her voice dropping into a register so cold and flat that Daniel instinctively stepped back.
She pressed the phone to her ear. On the third ring, a crisp, professional dispatcher’s voice answered on speakerphone, echoing quietly in the corridor.
"Riverside Police Department dispatch, Officer Vance speaking. What is your emergency?"
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Patricia’s face drained of every drop of color. She lunged forward, her hand clawing toward the phone like a striking hawk. "Stop her! She’s out of her mind! Take that phone away from her!"
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