Chapter 2 - The Emergency Ward
The glaring hospital lights blinded me as the paramedics wheeled my stretcher through the emergency room doors.
Nurses shouted frantic medical codes as my baby's heart rate began to drop dangerously low on their portable monitors.
I was rushed into an operating room for an emergency cesarean section before I could even process the truth about my husband's murder.
The anesthesia pulled me down into a dark, suffocating sleep where I relived the nightmare of my father dragging me across the floor.
When I finally woke up hours later, my private hospital room was terrifyingly quiet and dimly lit.
My stomach was heavily bandaged, pain throbbing with every shallow breath, but my arms were completely empty.
Panic surged through my veins like ice water as I realized my newborn son was nowhere in the room.
I pressed the nurse call button frantically, screaming for someone to tell me where they had taken my baby.
The heavy wooden door slowly pushed open, but the person who stepped inside was not a medical professional.
Charles walked in looking completely unbothered, wearing a custom Italian suit that probably cost more than my first car.
Courtney trailed closely right behind him, holding a tiny, sleeping newborn wrapped tightly in a pale blue hospital blanket.
I screamed at them to get away from my child and demanded they hand my son back to me immediately.
Charles calmly adjusted his expensive tie and pulled a neatly folded legal document from his breast pocket.
He spoke in a cold, measured tone, informing me that I had been officially deemed psychologically unfit to care for an infant.
He claimed the profound trauma of Lucas's sudden death had induced a severe psychotic break that made me a danger to the child.
He slowly unfolded a temporary emergency custody order, displaying the official golden seal of the county family court.
I strained my eyes to read the bottom of the page, recognizing the distinct, looping signature of the presiding judge.
It was Judge Harrison Miller, a man known for being utterly ruthless and corrupt in family court disputes.
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Courtney smiled a sickeningly sweet smile and pressed a gentle kiss to my newborn baby's fragile forehead.
She leaned over my hospital bed and whispered that her father, Judge Harrison Miller, was always very generous to his little girl.
