Chapter 9 - THE HOSPITAL BLACKOUT
Emma reached for the emergency button.Nothing happened.
The backup power had not activated.
Charles entered and locked the door behind him.
He removed the surgical mask.
Without his tailored suit and public smile, he looked older and more dangerous.
“You have caused a great deal of damage,” he said.
Emma moved to the far side of the bed.
“You caused it.”
“I built everything this family has.”
“You built it on dead children.”
Charles’s expression did not change.
“Progress always has a cost.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
She kept one hand on the bed railing.
“Stay away from me.”
“I am not here to harm the baby.”
“That is what you said before Vivian pushed me.”
Charles glanced toward the dark hallway.
“I underestimated my daughter’s temper.”
“You ordered an accident.”
“I ordered pressure.”
“You lie as easily as you breathe.”
Charles stepped closer.
“I need to know where your father hid the archive.”
“I don’t know.”
“You inherited the cabin.”
“That does not mean the files are there.”
Charles removed a syringe from his pocket.
Emma’s heart pounded.
“What is that?”
“A sedative.”
“You are not touching me.”
“You will wake up safely after I have the information I need.”
Emma grabbed a metal water pitcher and held it in front of her.
Charles almost smiled.
“You are your father’s daughter.”
Before he could move closer, someone struck the glass door from outside.
Daniel appeared in the hallway.
He lifted a fire extinguisher and smashed the glass.
Charles turned.
Daniel reached through the broken opening and unlocked the door.
“Get away from her,” he shouted.
Charles looked at his son with disgust.
“You always were weak.”
Daniel stepped between him and Emma.
“No.”
“I made you.”
“You controlled me.”
Charles raised the syringe.
Daniel knocked it away.
The two men struggled.
Emma moved toward the hallway, but pain shot through her abdomen.
She gripped the doorway.
Daniel struck Charles across the jaw.
Charles stumbled into the medical cart.
The syringe fell beneath the bed.
Police officers rushed from the stairwell.
Detective Reed tackled Charles before he could reach the exit.
The lights flickered back on.
The fetal monitor restarted.
A rapid alarm filled the room.
The nurse looked at the screen.
“Her contractions are starting.”
Emma was rushed to a delivery unit.
The fall, the stress, and the struggle had triggered premature labor.
Doctors worked to slow the contractions.
For several hours, Emma believed her baby might be born too early.
Daniel waited outside under police guard.
Charles was taken away in handcuffs.
During the search, investigators found a portable device in his pocket.
It contained instructions for disabling the hospital generator.
He had bribed a maintenance contractor weeks earlier.
The attack had not been spontaneous.
He had prepared for it before Emma fell.
By morning, the contractions stopped.
The doctor told Emma the baby needed to remain inside for as long as possible.
“You need complete rest,” she said.
Emma nodded.
Then Detective Reed entered.
“We charged Charles with attempted kidnapping, conspiracy, witness intimidation, and several other offenses.”
“What about Project Eve?”
“The federal case is growing.”
“Is it enough?”
“Not yet.”
Emma looked at the rain beyond the hospital window.
“My father’s archive could prove everything.”
Reed shook his head.
“You are not going to the cabin.”
“I don’t have to.”
Emma remembered the games her father created when she was a child.
He often hid birthday presents behind riddles.
One phrase appeared repeatedly in his letters.
Truth sleeps where music cannot be heard.
The cabin had no piano.
But her father’s old city home did.
After he died, Emma donated the piano to a small community theater.
Detective Reed searched the theater records.
The piano remained in storage beneath the stage.
Inside its wooden frame, investigators found a brass key.
Attached to it was a tag bearing the name of a bank.
Samuel’s archive was not at the cabin.
It was inside a safe-deposit box that had remained unopened for sixteen years.
The bank informed Reed that accessing it required two things.
May you like
The brass key.
And Emma’s fingerprints.
