Chapter 3 - THE RETURN OF THE COWARDThe elevator doors slid open with a soft metallic ping.
Out stepped David Vance, flanked not by his glamorous mistress, but by two private security guards he must have hired from the lobby. His expensive suit jacket was unbuttoned, his tie slightly crooked, and his face twisted into a mask of ugly, desperate entitlement.
“I forgot my briefcase,” David snapped loudly as he marched down the corridor toward my room. Then, he stopped dead in his tracks.
His eyes locked onto Luka Moretti.
David’s color drained instantly. The arrogant swagger he had worn while walking out with his mistress just ten minutes earlier vanished, replaced by an expression of sheer, unadulterated panic. He knew who Luka was. Or, at the very least, he recognized the terrifying reputation that preceded a man like Luka Moretti in the dark corporate underbelly of the city.
“You…” David choked out, pointing a trembling finger at Luka. “You’re not supposed to be here. This is a private hospital. Security! Get this thug away from my wife!”
“She’s not your wife anymore, David,” Luka said smoothly, stepping casually into the center of the hallway, placing himself like an impenetrable wall between David and my hospital bed. “In fact, if you check the state registry updates processed three minutes ago, you’ll find your legal ties to Chloe have been severed under emergency abandonment clauses. And as for the baby... well, my name is on the birth certificate now.”
David let out a hysterical, high-pitched laugh that sounded like breaking glass. “Are you out of your mind?! You can’t just sign a birth certificate! I’ll sue you! I’ll have you thrown in a federal cage for forgery and impersonation!”
“Go ahead, David. Call the cops,” Luka challenged, taking a slow step forward. Every muscle in Luka’s powerful frame coiled with suppressed menace. “Tell them you want an official investigation into Vance Industries, the missing M-17 medical records, and the offshore wire transfers you received yesterday from the biomedical board. Go on. Pick up your phone.”
David’s hand hovered frantically over his pocket, his fingers twitching. His eyes darted nervously from Luka to me, and finally to the nurse standing frozen by the doorway. The color in David’s face shifted from pale to an alarming shade of sickly green.
He didn't call the police. He knew that opening an official investigation would mean opening his own Pandora's box of corporate espionage and embezzlement.
“This isn't over,” David hissed, his voice trembling with impotent rage as he glared at me. “You think you’ve won something tonight, Chloe? You’re broke, you’re exhausted, and you’re saddled with a newborn baby you can’t even afford to feed. Without my salary, you’ll be living on the streets by the end of the week! That bastard can’t save you!”
With that, David turned on his heel, motioned frantically for his private security guards to follow, and bolted back toward the elevators, practically tripping over his own feet in his desperate haste to escape.
May you like
The heavy silence returned to the hallway.
I sank slowly back against my hospital pillows, the adrenaline crashing out of my system, leaving me shaking from head to toe.
