Chapter 3 - The Shadow War
Chicago General Hospital was a fortress of bright lights, sterile smells, and frantic energy. The moment they hit the emergency room, Emma was swarmed by specialists. They whisked her away behind heavy double doors, leaving Lucas standing in the waiting room with blood on his white dress shirt and a heart pounding a frantic, terrifying rhythm against his ribs.
For two agonizing hours, he paced the floor. He didn't call his family. Instead, he pulled out his phone and dialed the one man he trusted implicitly: Marcus Thorne, his personal head of security, a former intelligence officer who answered only to Lucas.
“Marcus,” Lucas said the moment the line connected. “I need you at Chicago General. Bring a detail. Two men on the door of my wife’s room, 24/7. No one gets in without my explicit verbal approval. Not the hospital administration, and definitely not my mother or Richard.”
“Done,” Marcus replied, his tone shifting instantly into professional vigilance. “What happened, boss?”
“My family tried to kill my wife,” Lucas said, the words tasting like acid on his tongue. “And they forged my signature to take custody of my unborn child. I need you to find the ‘nurse’ who has been coming to my penthouse for the last week. Get the building security footage. Find her car, find her name, and bring her to me.”
By dawn, the lead toxicologist emerged from the ICU. Dr. Aris was a no-nonsense woman with sharp eyes.
“Mr. Bennett, your wife is stable, but it was incredibly close,” she said, her expression grim. “She wasn't given vitamins. She was being injected with a highly concentrated synthetic coagulant. It forced her blood to clot in her lower extremities, causing the swelling, the bruising, and the excruciating pain. If you had waited another twenty-four hours, the clots would have traveled to her heart or lungs. It would have been fatal.”
Lucas leaned against the wall, closing his eyes as a wave of nausea washed over him. “And the baby?”
“The baby is a fighter. Strong heartbeat,” Dr. Aris said, her face softening slightly. “But she needs absolute rest. The stress has triggered early contractions. We’ve managed to stop them, but she cannot leave this bed.”
Lucas walked into Emma’s room. She was pale, hooked up to an array of monitors, but she was breathing steadily. He sat beside her, burying his face in her hand.
His phone buzzed. It was Marcus.
“Boss, I pulled the lobby footage,” Marcus said. “The nurse’s name is Clara Higgins. But here’s the kicker... she’s not a registered nurse. She’s an actress. And I just traced a wire transfer to her bank account made three days ago. It came from a shell corporation owned by Richard Bennett.”
May you like
The shadow war had officially begun. And Lucas was no longer playing defense.
---
