Chapter 4 - Secrets in the ERThe sterile white lights of Saint Jude’s Memorial Hospital emergency room felt blinding after the dark, brutal chill of the square.
“Core body temperature is ninety-one degrees and dropping!” an ER resident yelled over the frantic beep of monitors. “Get the warm IV fluids going! Incubator, now!”
Nathan stood just outside trauma bay three, his designer suit wrinkled, his hands still smeared with dry dirt and the faint, tragic grime of the cardboard box. Maya sat on a plastic chair in the corner, wrapped in three heavy woolen blankets provided by a sympathetic nurse, sipping warm apple juice with shaking hands.
Dr. Aris Vance, the head of pediatric emergency medicine, stepped through the swinging doors, peeling off his surgical gloves with a grim expression.
Nathan stepped forward immediately. “How is he?”
“He’s alive, Mr. Fischer—the front desk recognized you,” Dr. Vance said, his voice measured and tired. “If you had brought him in ten minutes later, his organs would have started shutting down. Hypothermia at that age moves with terrifying speed.”
Nathan let out a long, shuddering breath he felt like he’d been holding since he lifted that cardboard flap.
“Can I see him?”
“Through the glass, yes. But Mr. Fischer, there’s something else you need to see. Something we found when we undressed the infant.” Dr. Vance motioned for Nathan to follow him toward a small stainless-steel examination table.
Lying on a sterile tray was the threadbare hospital blanket Maya had used to wrap her brother. Next to it sat a small, bloodstained leather wallet and a folded piece of heavy cardstock paper.
“This was pinned to the inside lining of the blanket with a safety pin,” Dr. Vance said, handing Nathan a pair of sterile latex gloves.
Nathan pulled them on, picked up the paper, and unfolded it. Scrawled in rushed, panicked handwriting with a black marker were words that turned his blood to ice:
“If you are reading this, they found us. Do not take them to the authorities. They are hunting the children of the Fischer lineage. Protect them from Julian.”
Nathan stared at the paper. The world around him seemed to tilt on its axis.
May you like
Fischer lineage?
Julian was his own flesh and blood—his ruthless, charismatic older cousin and the current Chief Operating Officer of Fischer Global Enterprises.
