Chapter 7 - THE SHADOW IN THE WARD
“Get a wheelchair.”
My voice didn’t sound like my own. It sounded like a stranger’s—cold, sharp, and entirely devoid of fear.
“Tessa, you have a fractured pelvis,” Adrian argued, though he was already reaching for the call button. “You can’t put weight on your legs. Let me call hospital security.”
“Get me a chair, Adrian, or I will crawl down that hallway with my bare hands!” I screamed.
Bethany rushed in moments later. Seeing the absolute terror on my face, she didn't argue. She expertly maneuvered a heavy transport wheelchair to the side of the bed. Between her and Adrian, they lifted me. The pain was blinding—a white-hot spike driving through my lower half—but I bit through my lip until I tasted blood to keep from passing out.
“Pediatric ward, third floor,” Bethany instructed, pushing my chair at a near sprint while Adrian ran alongside us, still tracking the IP signal on his tablet.
The hospital corridors blurred past. The sterile smell of iodine and bleach filled my nose. My babies were on the third floor. Someone orchestrating a multi-million-dollar cyber heist was sitting in the same wing as my defenseless children.
We slammed through the double doors of the pediatric ward. The lights were dimmed for naptime. The air was quiet, filled only with the soft hum of monitors.
“Rooms 312 and 314,” Bethany whispered, pointing down the hall. “Your twins are in 314.”
“The signal is coming from 312,” Adrian confirmed, his eyes glued to the tablet.
“Bethany, get to my babies,” I ordered. “Lock the door from the inside. Do not open it for anyone but the police.”
Bethany nodded, sprinting quietly down the hall and slipping into room 314.
Adrian pushed my wheelchair toward the half-open door of room 312. It was supposed to be an empty observation room.
Adrian stepped in front of me, picking up a heavy metal IV stand from the hallway to use as a weapon. He pushed the door open.
The room was empty.
But sitting on the rolling tray table next to the empty hospital bed was a sleek, black laptop. A thick cable ran from the laptop into the hospital’s hardwired ethernet port in the wall. A progress bar on the screen showed a massive data transfer at 98% completion.
Adrian dropped the IV pole and lunged for the laptop, yanking the ethernet cable out of the wall.
The screen flashed red. TRANSFER INTERRUPTED.
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. We stopped it.
As Adrian reached to close the laptop, his hand froze.
“Tessa,” he whispered. “Look at this.”
I rolled my wheelchair closer.
The interrupted transfer window had minimized, revealing the laptop’s desktop background.
It was a photograph. A candid, high-resolution photo taken at a restaurant.
It was a picture of my late husband, Luke. He was sitting across the table from Vanessa. They were leaning close to each other, deep in conversation.
My heart shattered all over again. My mother’s lies. Vanessa’s cruelty. Luke’s hidden loans. Had my husband been having an affair with my sister while I was building a company to support them?
But then, my eyes caught a detail in the photo.
I leaned closer to the screen, ignoring the throbbing pain in my ribs.
Luke wasn't looking at Vanessa with love. His jaw was clenched tight. The veins in his neck were standing out. And resting on the table between them, beneath Vanessa’s perfectly manicured hand, was a document.
“Zoom in on the table,” I told Adrian.
Adrian tapped the trackpad, magnifying the image.
Underneath Vanessa’s hand, clearly legible in the high-resolution photo, was the title of the document.
LIFE INSURANCE BENEFICIARY TRANSFER.
“He wasn't having an affair,” I whispered, the true horror of the situation locking my lungs. “She was blackmailing him.”
“How touching.”
A voice echoed from the doorway.
I spun my wheelchair around.
Vanessa stood in the doorway of the hospital room. She was no longer wearing the pristine white trench coat. She wore dark clothes, her hair pulled back sharply.
May you like
In her hand, she held the gold pen.
“You ruined the download, Tessa,” Vanessa said, her voice devoid of any sisterly affection. She stepped into the room, locking the door behind her. “My partner is going to be very, very upset.”
