Chapter 1 - The Locked Door
I stared at my phone screen as the three dots danced and vanished.
The words "Don't move" felt heavy and cold in my shaking hands.
I had been married to Nathaniel Pierce for eleven years.
He was a man who never panicked and never lost control.
For him to send a message like that meant something was terribly wrong.
I looked at the empty file slot in his desk drawer one more time.
The Patient Incident Review for a woman named L. Monroe was completely gone.
And a stranger named Vanessa had somehow used my husband's lost badge to take it.
I stood perfectly still in the center of the luxurious, mahogany-paneled office.
My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped, frantic bird.
The silence of the administrative floor suddenly felt suffocating and dangerous.
Then, heavy footsteps echoed loudly in the polished marble hallway outside.
Someone was running furiously toward the office door.
I backed away from the massive desk and pressed my spine against the cold wall.
The brass doorknob turned violently, rattling the heavy wooden frame.
Nathan burst into the room, gasping for air and sweating profusely.
His pristine white medical coat was stained with something dark, wet, and undeniably red.
He quickly slammed the heavy door behind him and locked the steel deadbolt.
His eyes were wide with a frantic terror I had never witnessed in him before.
"I told you not to move," he whispered sharply, his chest heaving.
"Nathan, what is going on and whose blood is that?" I asked, my voice trembling wildly.
He completely ignored my questions and rushed toward a large oil painting hanging on the far wall.
He tore the expensive painting down, revealing a hidden steel wall safe I never knew existed.
He punched in a rapid sequence of numbers and pulled out a thick stack of foreign passports.
He grabbed my purse and aggressively shoved the documents deep inside.
"You need to leave this hospital right now through the basement service elevator," he ordered frantically.
"I am not leaving this room until you tell me the absolute truth," I shot back, holding my ground.
A loud, aggressive pounding suddenly erupted against the locked office door.
"Dr. Pierce, open this door immediately or we will breach it!" a deep, authoritative voice shouted from the hallway.
The heavy blows against the wood made the entire room shake violently.
"It is the police, and they are here for me," Nathan whispered, his face turning ghostly pale.
He looked wildly around the room as if searching for a magical escape route that did not exist.
He looked at me with tears welling in his eyes and reached deep into his pocket.
He pulled out a gleaming silver surgical scalpel and stepped aggressively toward me.
The metal caught the fluorescent light, flashing with a deadly, terrifying brilliance.
"I am so incredibly sorry, Clara, but this is the only way you survive," he said, his voice cracking with intense emotion.
May you like
He grabbed my arm violently and pulled my back against his chest.
Without another word of explanation, he pressed the razor-sharp blade directly against my throat.
