Chapter 4 - The Midnight Escape
The reality of my situation crushed my chest like a heavy concrete block. My husband and his mother finally left the room, promising to return with the surgical team at dawn. I stared at the ceiling for hours, desperately trying to formulate a plan. Around midnight, a young nurse quietly slipped into my dark room. She checked my vitals and noticed the metal handcuff tearing into my bruised wrist. She whispered that she had heard my husband bragging to his mother in the hallway. She told me she knew I was innocent and she refused to let them harm my baby. The nurse pulled a small silver key from her pocket and unlocked my handcuff. I gasped in relief as my arm fell freely onto the mattress. She handed me a set of stolen hospital scrubs and told me to get dressed quickly. I carefully pulled the loose fabric over my blistered stomach, wincing in agony. She led me through a hidden service corridor to avoid the police officer guarding the main hall. We reached the basement loading dock where a laundry truck was idling in the dark. The nurse gave me a burner phone and told me to run as far away as possible. I hugged her tightly, thanking her for risking her entire career to save us. I climbed into the back of the truck and hid beneath a pile of heavy hospital blankets. The truck drove for thirty minutes before stopping at a commercial laundry facility. I slipped out into the cold night air and immediately dialed David's number on the burner phone. He answered on the first ring, sounding breathless and terrified. I told him I had escaped and needed a safe place to hide. David gave me an address for an abandoned motel on the outskirts of the city. He told me to hurry because he had discovered something incredible about my husband's finances. I arrived at the motel an hour later and knocked on room number seven. The door creaked open, but it was not David standing in the shadows. It was Victoria, holding a suppressed pistol aimed directly at my chest.
