Chapter 14 - THE DELIVERY ROOM BENEATH ST. AUGUSTINE
Federal agents surrounded St. Augustine Research Center.
I entered through the main doors in a wheelchair.
Dr. Collins walked beside me carrying an emergency delivery bag.
Daniel pushed the chair.
Nathan’s agents watched through concealed cameras.
Dr. Cross waited underground with Noah and Lily.
She had transformed the old laboratory into a surgical theater.
Jason stood beside her.
He had escaped federal transport during an ambush.
His wrists were bruised from broken restraints.
When he saw me, he smiled.
“You came back.”
“I came for the children.”
His eyes moved toward my belly.
“You always choose them over me.”
“There was never an us.”
Dr. Cross ordered Daniel to step away.
He did not.
She placed a gun against Noah’s head.
Daniel stopped.
My contraction hit.
I doubled forward.
Fluid spread beneath the wheelchair.
Dr. Collins checked me.
“The baby is coming.”
Dr. Cross smiled.
“Perfect timing.”
She ordered Jason to move me onto the surgical table.
He reached for me.
I slapped his hand away.
“Touch me and I bite through your throat.”
His expression darkened.
Dr. Collins stepped between us.
“She delivers with me.”
“You are not in charge,” Dr. Cross said.
“I am the only doctor here who cares whether the patient lives.”
For once, Evelyn Cross had no answer.
My labor accelerated.
There was no time for surgery.
Dr. Collins guided me onto the table.
Daniel remained near Noah and Lily.
Jason guarded the exit.
Nathan waited for a clear line of fire.
Dr. Cross attached a portable scanner to my abdomen.
The image appeared.
She stared at the screen.
Her face changed.
“What?” Jason asked.
She did not answer.
Dr. Collins saw the same thing.
“The baby’s cord is compressed.”
My daughter’s heartbeat dropped.
Dr. Cross reached for an instrument tray.
“We perform an emergency extraction.”
“No,” Dr. Collins said. “She can deliver vaginally if we reposition her.”
“There is no time.”
“There is if you stop interfering.”
The two doctors locked eyes.
Then Noah kicked the tray toward Jason.
Metal instruments scattered.
Daniel tackled him.
Lily bit Dr. Cross’s hand.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Nathan’s team breached the doors.
Agents flooded the room.
Dr. Cross grabbed the ultrasound probe and pulled me against her.
A scalpel pressed beneath my jaw.
“Everyone back.”
My daughter’s heartbeat weakened.
Dr. Collins remained beside the table.
“Evelyn, Sarah needs to push now.”
Dr. Cross’s hand trembled.
“You think saving one child changes anything?”
“No,” I whispered.
“But losing control changes you.”
Her eyes flicked toward me.
I drove my elbow into her ribs.
The scalpel slipped.
Daniel pulled Noah away.
Nathan tackled his mother.
Dr. Collins looked directly at me.
“Push.”
I screamed.
The laboratory disappeared beneath the pain.
One push.
Then another.
My daughter entered the world while federal agents handcuffed the woman who had stolen my first child.
For one terrifying second, the baby made no sound.
Then she cried.
Jason stopped fighting.
He stared toward her.
“She’s mine.”
Daniel stood beside me.
“No.”
May you like
I held my daughter against my chest.
“She belongs to herself.”
