Chapter 6 - The Delivery Room
I could not see what was printed on those papers, but it broke Daniel completely.
He remained on his knees in the grass, his hands covering his face in absolute defeat.
Marcus stood over him for a moment longer before turning and walking back inside the townhouse.
Chloe slammed the door shut, leaving Daniel alone in the fading sunlight.
I lowered my camera, my hands shaking with adrenaline.
Whatever leverage Marcus had on Daniel, it was incredibly powerful.
I put the car in drive and slipped away before Daniel could spot me.
Two weeks later, my water broke in the middle of the night.
Daniel drove me to the hospital in a tense, suffocating silence.
Ever since the incident at the townhouse, he had been acting like a cornered animal.
He jumped at loud noises and constantly checked his phone with trembling hands.
The labor was long and incredibly agonizing.
Through the haze of pain, I watched Daniel pace the delivery room.
He wasn't pacing out of concern for me or our baby.
He was pacing because he was trapped, waiting for a different kind of bomb to drop.
Finally, our beautiful daughter, Lily, was born.
They placed her warm, fragile body on my chest, and I wept with pure joy.
For a brief, naive moment, I hoped this would change him.
Daniel approached the bed and looked down at his daughter.
He smiled, but the smile never reached his cold, distant eyes.
He took a few photos for his social media accounts, kissing my forehead for the camera.
Then, he checked his watch and said he needed to go to the cafeteria for coffee.
He was gone for over three hours.
While he was gone, Eleanor came to visit me under the guise of dropping off flowers.
She closed the hospital room door and handed me a sealed envelope.
She had finally figured out what papers Marcus had shoved into Daniel's chest.
It was a massive blackmail demand.
Marcus had discovered Daniel's embezzlement from his own company to fund Chloe's lifestyle.
If Daniel didn't pay Marcus two hundred thousand dollars by the end of the month, Marcus was going to the police.
I looked at Eleanor, feeling a sudden chill in the warm room.
I asked her where Daniel was going to get that kind of money.
Eleanor looked at me with deep sympathy in her eyes.
She gently told me that Daniel had just taken out a massive second mortgage on my childhood home.
The house my late parents had left entirely to me.
But he needed my physical signature to finalize the loan transfer today.
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Just then, the hospital room door clicked open.
Daniel walked in holding a clipboard and a blue ink pen, looking directly at me.
