Chapter 18 - The Baby Arrives Early
Stress triggered contractions at thirty-three weeks.
Rebecca was rushed to the hospital.
Her hands shook as nurses prepared her.
The corrupt doctor had been removed, but fear remained.
“What if someone takes the baby?”
Richard stood beside her.
“No one will.”
She looked at him.
“You cannot promise that.”
He corrected himself.
“The hospital has security. Detective Ortiz is outside. Your attorney has verified every consent form. We have prepared.”
The difference mattered.
Protection was not a promise.
It was action.
The baby’s heart rate dropped.
Doctors performed an emergency delivery.
Rebecca gave birth to a premature boy.
He weighed less than four pounds.
For several terrifying seconds, he made no sound.
Then a thin cry filled the operating room.
Rebecca began sobbing.
“He’s alive?”
“He’s breathing,” the doctor said.
The baby was taken to neonatal intensive care.
Rebecca named him Matthew Richard Lawson.
She did not use Trevor’s surname.
Richard cried when he heard the middle name.
“Do not mistake that for complete forgiveness,” Rebecca said weakly.
“I won’t.”
Emma met her brother through the incubator glass.
“He’s tiny.”
“He’s strong,” Rebecca said.
Trevor’s attorney filed an emergency request for information about the child.
The judge denied direct access.
However, Trevor demanded a paternity test.
He claimed Matthew might not be his.
Rebecca laughed for the first time in weeks.
Even from jail, he tried to humiliate her.
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The DNA test confirmed something no one expected.
Trevor was not Matthew’s biological father.
