Chapter 3
The ambulance doors closed, shutting out the screaming behind me.
For the first time that night, I could hear my own breathing.
Fast.
Broken.
Terrified.
Diana climbed in beside the paramedic before the doors fully latched.
One officer tried to stop her.
She flashed her badge.
“I’m staying with her until the hospital.”
Nobody argued.
The paramedic adjusted the monitor straps across my stomach.
A rapid heartbeat filled the ambulance.
Tiny.
Fast.
Alive.
My eyes flooded.
“Is that the baby?”
“Yes,” the paramedic said. “Strong heartbeat.”
I covered my mouth.
Diana gripped my hand.
“You hear that?”
I nodded.
For months, I had been strong because I had no choice.
Strong through the Sterling dinners.
Strong through Julian’s excuses.
Strong through the case files showing his signature again and again.
But that little heartbeat nearly destroyed me.
The ambulance lurched forward.
Sirens split the night.
Diana leaned close.
“You need to tell me something. Did Julian know you were reviewing Sterling records?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“I was careful.”
“Did he ever access your briefcase?”
“My briefcase has a biometric lock and backup code.”
“Could Eleanor?”
“No.”
“What about your home office?”
I thought of Julian standing behind me two weeks earlier as I closed my laptop.
His hand on my shoulder.
His soft voice.
You work too hard, Aud.
I had believed it was affection.
Now I remembered his eyes dropping to the case number on the edge of a printed summary.
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
Diana’s jaw tightened.
“What?”
“He may have seen something. I don’t know how much.”
The paramedic interrupted.
“Another contraction coming?”
I nodded before I could answer.
Pain gripped my body.
The kind that erased language.
I squeezed Diana’s hand so hard she winced but didn’t pull away.
“Breathe,” she said.
“I’m trying.”
“You’re doing it.”
The baby’s heartbeat continued.
Fast.
Steady.
Please, I prayed.
Not to any polished Sterling God.
Not to the God of chandeliers and vineyards.
Just the desperate God of mothers who have nothing left to bargain with.
Please let my baby live.
At the hospital, everything moved fast.
Bright lights.
Rolling wheels.
Questions.
Names.
Dates.
Allergies.
How many weeks?
Thirty-four.
Any complications?
No.
Any trauma?
I stopped.
Diana answered.
“She was unlawfully confined and delayed from emergency care.”
The nurse looked at me.
Her face changed.
Softened.
“We’ve got you.”
Those three words did more for me than anything Julian had said in months.
A doctor named Patel examined me.
“You’re in active labor,” she said. “We’re going to give medication to support the baby’s lungs if we can, but this baby may not wait.”
“Is she okay?”
“She?”
I nodded.
“A girl.”
Dr. Patel smiled gently.
“Then your daughter is telling us she is ready to be heard.”
I laughed through tears.
“That sounds like her already.”
Diana stepped aside to take a call.
Her face hardened as she listened.
Then she came back.
“They found the briefcase.”
“And?”
“Files intact. They also seized estate servers, finance office records, Seraphina’s laptop, Eleanor’s phone, and Julian’s phone.”
I closed my eyes.
Julian’s phone.
My husband’s life in one device.
Texts.
Transfers.
Lies.
The nurse checked the monitor again.
Diana hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
I opened my eyes.
“What?”
“The warrant team found a locked room under the east office.”
I frowned.
“What locked room?”
“Server backups. Paper ledgers. Cash. A lot of it.”
My mouth went dry.
“How much?”
“Preliminary count? More than two million.”
For a second, even labor could not compete with shock.
Two million dollars.
In cash.
At a wedding estate.
Diana’s voice lowered.
“And Audrey, one of the ledgers has your name in it.”
My heart stopped.
“My name?”
“Not as investigator. As vendor.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
The monitor beeped faster.
Dr. Patel looked up.
“Audrey, stay with me.”
Diana grabbed my hand again.
“They were setting you up.”
The room tilted.
The Sterlings had not just ignored me.
May you like
They had planned for me.
And my husband had signed every transfer.
