Chapter 3 - The Woman in the Hallway
By midnight, there were two uniformed officers outside the ICU and a detective named Laura Keene reviewing Daniel’s recorded call with hospital legal. I should have felt vindicated, but all I felt was tired and sick and furious in ways that left no room for anything dramatic. Then the elevator doors opened, and Daniel stepped into the hallway in a gray suit, still carrying himself like a man who believed titles could protect him. Vanessa was behind him. She was blonde, carefully dressed, and visibly fragile in the way of someone living on nerves and rehearsed innocence. I saw immediately what I had missed for months: she looked pregnant. Not far along, but enough to make the curve of her cream blouse make sense. So that was part of it too. My daughter’s medication. His mistress. Another baby.
Daniel tried to approach the glass doors, but one of the officers stopped him. “My daughter is in there,” he said, suddenly performing outrage instead of indifference. Dr. Bennett came into the hallway holding Lily’s medication chart and looked at him with open disgust. “Your daughter is alive because ICU staff found an emergency reserve after you diverted her prescription.” Vanessa turned toward Daniel so sharply that even the officers noticed. “You said the order had been delayed,” she whispered. He ignored her and focused on me. “Emily, you’re blowing this out of proportion.” It would have almost been funny if Lily had not been lying ten feet away attached to machines. I looked at him and said, “You told me on a recorded line that Vanessa was worth more than your daughter.” For the first time that night, his confidence flickered. Vanessa stared at him, then at the doctor, then at the chart in his hand. She looked less smug now. More lost. Almost frightened. That fear would matter before the night was over.
