flash
Bradley reached down, gripping my shoulder with fingers that felt like iron vises. "Stop acting like a hysterical patient, Allison," he hissed, his voice venomous enough to freeze boiling water. "You are pushing now, or I will have them sedate you and perform a vacuum extraction myself. Do not embarrass me in front of my staff." / Chapter 3 / 8

Chapter 3 - Awakening the Monster

When I opened my eyes twelve hours later, the harsh white lights of the intensive care unit replaced the delivery room.

My mouth was as dry as ash, a breathing tube having recently been removed. Sitting in the stiff plastic chair beside my bed was not Bradley, but my fiercely loyal best friend and legal counsel, Victoria Vance, holding a thick manila folder.

"Don't try to sit up," Victoria said softly, her eyes flashing with a mix of tears and pure, unadulterated fury. "You lost the uterus, Ally. They couldn't save it. The tearing was too catastrophic."

I stared up at the ceiling, feeling a cold, dead weight settle in my chest. Seven years of marriage. A healthy son. And my body had been mutilated because of a petty, narcissistic power trip.

"Where is Bradley?" I asked, my voice scraping like sandpaper.

Victoria’s lips curved into a terrifying, shark-like smile.

"Bradley woke up from his little fainting spell with a severe hypertensive crisis brought on by acute narcissistic rage and a cocktail of unprescribed amphetamines we found in his private locker," Victoria said, sliding a stack of documents onto my blanket. "And darling? Word travels fast in St. Jude Memorial Hospital. Especially when the Chief of Emergency Medicine nearly dies on the table because her husband played God."

"What did he do when he woke up?" I whispered.

"He tried to rewrite the medical charts," Victoria laughed, though there was no humor in it. "He tried to claim you suffered standard postpartum complications and that he saved your life. But he forgot one tiny, fatal detail."

She tapped the manila folder.

"Every single nurse in that delivery room signed an affidavit detailing his refusal of standard protocol, his deliberate endangerment of you and the baby, and his collusion with that little parasite, Hannah."

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My heart hammered against my ribs. "And Hannah?"

"Hannah tried to clean out his office at 3:00 AM," Victoria whispered, her eyes gleaming. "Security caught her trying to shred the patient logs. She’s currently sitting in an interrogation room downstairs, singing like a canary to save her own medical license."

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