Chapter 2 - The First Drop
Julianna reached out to grab Claire’s wrist, her polished red nails digging through the wool of Claire’s sleeve.
"Do not touch her," Julianna hissed under her breath.
"You are a temp from an agency, not a physician."
Claire pulled her arm away with a sharp, deliberate jerk.
She looked directly at Gabriel, who had stepped into the room like a gathering thunderstorm.
"Send everyone out," Claire said, never breaking eye contact with the mob boss.
Julianna scoffed loudly.
"Gabriel, this girl is insane."
"Lily has less than twelve hours before kidney failure."
"Get out," Gabriel ordered, his voice dropping into the deadly register that silenced courtroom docks.
Julianna’s face tightened with venom, but she turned on her high heels and left the suite.
The doctors and guards followed, leaving only Gabriel standing by the heavy door.
Claire did not approach the bed.
Instead, she sat cross-legged on the cold hardwood floor, ten feet away from the shivering child.
She pulled a clean cotton handkerchief from her pocket and picked up an ice bucket from the refreshment cart.
She wrapped a single cube of ice inside the clean cloth.
Claire turned her back to the bed entirely, removing herself as a physical threat.
She began to hum a quiet, rhythmic melody that had no words.
It was an old Appalachian lullaby her grandmother used to sing when winter froze the mountain pipes.
Lily’s ragged breathing hitched.
For ten long minutes, Claire only hummed, letting the rhythm fill the cavernous room like warm hearth smoke.
Slowly, the mattress creaked.
The heart monitor’s cadence began to slow from panic to curiosity.
Lily slid off the massive bed, her small bare feet dragging the IV pole across the floor.
Gabriel stepped forward instinctively, but Claire raised one flat hand behind her back to freeze him in place.
Lily stopped two feet behind Claire.
The child stared at the cold, damp bundle resting openly on Claire’s outstretched palm.
Lily reached out with trembling fingers and pressed the cloth against her cracked, bleeding lips.
She tasted the pure, cold meltwater.
A tiny whimper escaped the little girl’s throat as she sucked on the cloth, drinking her first moisture in four days.
Gabriel exhaled a ragged breath against the doorframe, his iron composure cracking for the first time in his life.
Claire turned her head slowly, offering Lily a warm, gentle smile.
May you like
As Lily leaned against Claire's shoulder, the sleeve of Julianna’s discarded cardigan on the chair caught Claire's eye.
Tucked into the cuff was an empty amber medicine vial labeled with an untraceable paralytic compound.
