Chapter 10 - THE CHILD THEY WANTED
Nora delivered my mother’s baby four minutes later.
The little girl did not breathe.
Nora worked over her tiny body.
My father stood beside her with tears running down his face.
“Come on.”
Nothing.
Then the baby coughed.
A thin cry filled the theater.
Tyler closed his eyes in relief.
Marcus heard it.
“You care if she survives.”
“She’s worth more than all of you.”
The outer doors buckled.
Marcus fired through the narrowing gap.
One attacker fell.
Another returned fire.
My mother was unconscious and losing blood.
Nora shouted for plasma.
There was none.
My blood type matched hers.
“Take mine.”
“You just gave birth.”
“Take it.”
My father connected the emergency transfusion equipment.
My blood flowed into the woman who had lied to me for years.
The woman carrying my stolen child.
The woman who had still tried to warn me.
Outside, sirens approached.
Tyler’s confidence vanished.
He had expected Vance reinforcements.
Not police.
Marcus had activated an emergency beacon before entering the basement.
Federal tactical teams breached the building.
The attackers fled.
One entered the delivery theater through a side door and reached for the second baby.
My father stepped between them.
The man shot him.
I screamed.
Marcus fired once.
The attacker fell.
My father collapsed beside the incubator.
Blood spread beneath him.
He looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stay awake.”
“I should’ve come back sooner.”
“You can apologize later.”
He smiled weakly.
Then his eyes closed.
Paramedics flooded the room.
Tyler was pulled upright.
As officers dragged him away, he shouted, “You still don’t know who owns the children!”
Marcus picked up a document from Tyler’s pocket.
May you like
It was a custody order signed by a federal judge.
Both newborn girls were legally classified as protected research assets.
