Chapter 2 - Code Blue
The continuous, flat-toned shriek of the heart monitor cut through the corridor like a knife.
Maya dropped the trust document—it fluttered aimlessly to the linoleum floor—and spun around, slamming her palms against the glass of the ICU doors. Inside, three surgeons and two nurses scrambled around Gemma’s bed, slamming the paddles of a defibrillator against her chest.
“Clear!”
A jolt of electricity surged through Gemma’s body, her frame arching upward against the mattress before falling back down, motionless.
“No, no, no,” Maya whimpered, tears streaming down her face as she pressed her forehead against the cool glass. “Gemma, stay with me. Please stay with me.”
Gabriel stood frozen behind her, his hands balled into tight fists at his sides, staring at the chaos inside the room as if watching a horror movie he couldn't wake up from.
The lead surgeon threw his hands down, his face grim beneath his surgical cap, and shook his head at the nurse holding the clipboard. He glanced out the window, caught Maya’s devastated gaze, and slowly drew the privacy curtain across the glass, shutting out the horrifying sight.
The alarm stopped, replaced by a heavy, suffocating silence in the hallway.
Maya sank slowly down against the wall, her knees pulling up to her chest as the world spun wildly out of control. Her twin pillars of existence—her beloved younger sister, who had brought light into every dark corner of their lives, and her best friend, who had supposedly guarded that light—had both been obliterated in less than five minutes.
Gabriel dropped to his knees beside her, reaching out a hesitant hand to touch her shoulder. “Maya... I’m so sorry. I didn't want it to end like this.”
“Don't you dare touch me,” Maya whispered, her voice dropping into a chilling, venomous register that made Gabriel pull his hand back as if burned. She lifted her head, her tear-stained eyes blazing with a sudden, terrifying fury. “She trusted you. She thought you were her knight. And all this time, you were just a parasite waiting for her to die so you could inherit her grave.”
“You don't understand the legal position we were in,” Gabriel pleaded desperately. “If you contest the trust now, the federal tax auditors will freeze the entire estate. We’ll lose everything—the house, the restaurant, the medical funds—”
“I don't give a damn about the money, Gabriel!” Maya screamed, scrambling to her feet and towering over him. “You killed her! Your greed, your lies, your manipulation—it broke her heart long before these babies ever tried to come early!”
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The heavy swing doors at the end of the corridor burst open, and a distraught nurse hurried out, holding a small, sterile bundle wrapped in a yellow hospital blanket.
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