Chapter 7 - The Midnight Visitor
By midnight, the hospital corridor grew deathly quiet. The nurses had dimmed the overhead lights, and the hum of the city outside provided a distant, melancholic soundtrack to my thoughts.
I was staring down at my sleeping daughter when I heard the distinct sound of soft, hesitant footsteps stopping outside my door.
The heavy glass-paneled door creaked open an inch.
A shadow slipped into the room.
I tensed, reaching instinctively for the nurse-call button beneath my pillow. But as the figure stepped under the dim light of the wall sconce, my hand froze.
It was my mother, Margaret.
Gone was the haughty, perfectly groomed socialite who had walked out of my penthouse without a backward glance while I lay bleeding on the marble. Her designer suit was wrinkled, her hair unbrushed, and her eyes were red-rimmed and hollowed out by absolute panic.
“Claire…” she whispered, her voice trembling like a cracked bell.
I didn't invite her in. I kept my body positioned protectively between her and the bassinet. “You have a lot of nerve showing your face here. Security is stationed right outside the door, Mother. One word from me, and they’ll drag you out in cuffs alongside Ethan.”
Margaret stumbled forward, collapsing onto her knees beside my bed, her hands clutching weakly at the edge of the blanket.
“Please, Claire… you have to help us,” she sobbed, tears streaming down her hollow cheeks. “Your father and I… we didn’t know it was the syndicate! They threatened us! If Ethan didn’t sign over those corporate assets to them, they said they would ruin our family completely!”
“Save it,” I interrupted, my voice as cold as ice. “You watched me bleeding on the floor with my water breaking, and you walked away to protect a real estate transaction. You abandoned your daughter and your unborn grandchild without blinking an eye.”
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Margaret choked back a sob, looking desperately toward the bassinet. “Is… is the baby okay?”
“Don’t you dare look at her,” I hissed, venom lacing every word. “You lost the right to call yourself a grandmother the second you walked out that door. Now get out before I have you arrested.”
