Chapter 7 - The Final Defibrillation
"No!" I screamed, the sound tearing violently from the deepest part of my soul.
I shoved Sarah away from the bed with an aggressive force I didn't know I possessed.
I leaped onto the side of the tiny medical cot, completely ignoring the sterile protocols.
I placed my hands directly over Noah's frail chest and began performing aggressive CPR compressions.
"Emma, stop, you're going to break his ribs!" Sarah pleaded, trying to pull me back gently.
"He is not dead!" I roared, pushing down on his chest with desperate rhythm.
"He survived five years in hell, he is not dying in a safe room!"
One, two, three, four.
I poured every ounce of maternal fury and desperate love into each violent compression.
Michael stood frozen in the corner, weeping openly as he watched me fight a losing battle against death.
"Come back to me, Noah," I chanted like a madwoman.
"Come back, I will never let anyone hurt you again."
"I am your mother, and I am ordering you to wake up!"
I refused to stop, even as my arms began to burn and my vision blurred with heavy tears.
After two agonizing minutes of continuous compressions, Sarah finally grabbed my wrists hard.
"Emma, please, you have to let him go," she cried.
Just as I was about to collapse entirely, a massive gasp tore through the silent room.
Noah's small chest heaved aggressively upward.
The flatline on the monitor suddenly spiked into a jagged, beautiful rhythm.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
It was weak, but it was incredibly fast and undeniably present.
"We have a pulse!" Sarah shouted, instantly moving back into doctor mode.
"Push another milligram of epinephrine and increase the pure oxygen flow immediately!"
I fell backward off the bed, collapsing onto the hard hospital floor.
I covered my face with my shaking hands and wept tears of pure, unadulterated relief.
Michael slid down the wall next to me, burying his face in his knees.
Outside the glass doors, the FBI agents were forcefully placing heavy steel handcuffs on Eleanor Hayes.
She was no longer the composed billionaire queen of the city.
She was screaming aggressively, spitting vicious curses at the agents as they dragged her out of the hospital lobby.
The nightmare was finally coming to a definitive end.
Over the next twelve agonizing hours, Noah was heavily stabilized and airlifted to a premier pediatric hospital in the city.
He underwent an emergency surgery to properly set his broken leg and flush the deep infection.
They placed him in a medically induced coma to allow his poisoned organs a chance to heal properly.
I never left his bedside for a single second.
Two days later, Michael came to visit the intensive care unit.
He was wearing an orange federal prison jumpsuit, accompanied by two armed US Marshals.
He stood perfectly still at the foot of Noah's bed, looking down at his sleeping son.
"He looks peaceful," Michael whispered softly.
"He is," I replied, standing up to face my former husband.
"The doctors said the arsenic damage is completely reversible with time."
"He is going to be perfectly fine."
Michael nodded, a sad, resigned smile crossing his tired face.
"I signed the emergency custody transfer papers this morning."
"You have full legal and physical rights to him forever."
"My family's lawyers can never touch him again."
"Thank you, Michael," I said sincerely, acknowledging the massive sacrifice he had finally made.
He turned to leave, his heavy chains rattling loudly against the silent hospital floor.
Before he walked out the door, he stopped and looked back at me one last time.
"Emma," Michael said, his voice lowering to a serious whisper.
May you like
"My mother's empire is completely dismantled, but she is a very vindictive woman."
"Just promise me you will never stop looking over your shoulder."
