Chapter 1 - The Empty Room
The sun was just beginning to rise over the Manhattan skyline when Nathaniel Callahan finally walked through the sliding doors of New York-Presbyterian.
His expensive Italian shoes clicked loudly against the sterile linoleum floor.
He carried a bouquet of expensive white orchids in his left hand.
He had ignored three desperate calls from his wife to comfort his mistress.
Now, guilt gnawed at his stomach like a starving animal.
He took the elevator up to the eighth floor.
He walked briskly toward room 814.
The heavy wooden door was wide open.
Nathaniel stepped inside and froze in his tracks.
The hospital bed was completely empty.
The thin white sheets were neatly folded.
The heart monitors were powered down and silent.
Panic instantly gripped his throat and made it hard to breathe.
He looked down at the small bedside table.
Resting on the cold plastic tray was her diamond wedding ring.
It was sitting completely alone in the quiet room.
He snatched the ring, his hands trembling violently.
Dr. Rebecca Sloan walked into the room with a grim expression on her face.
"Where is my wife?" Nathaniel demanded loudly.
"We assumed she was with you," Rebecca said softly.
"She experienced a sudden drop in blood pressure and needed an emergency transfusion."
"When we came back to prep her for surgery, she was already gone."
Nathaniel felt the air completely leave his lungs.
"She just walked out of here?" he asked in disbelief.
"She was in no condition to walk anywhere," Rebecca replied.
Nathaniel immediately marched down to the hospital's security office.
He demanded to see the hallway camera footage from midnight.
The security guard nervously typed on his keyboard.
The black and white video flickered onto the screen.
Nathaniel watched in sheer horror as two men dressed as paramedics wheeled a stretcher out of Clare's room.
Clare was unconscious on the rolling gurney.
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One of the men looked up directly at the security camera.
It was the blurred man from Vanessa's threatening photographs.
