Chapter 8 - "WHILE HE WAS CHASING HIS WIFE, HIS EMPIRE WAS STOLEN FROM UNDER HIM"
The bullet didn't hit Amy. It caught Daniel in the left shoulder, throwing him backward against the heavy oak counter. Blood began to bloom across his white shirt.
Outside, sirens wailed in the distance—Sarah had called the police from the back room the moment Vanessa had entered.
Vanessa froze, staring at the blood on Daniel’s shirt in horror. The reality of what she had done crashed down on her. She dropped the gun onto the rug, backed away in terror, and ran straight into the arms of three armed police officers rushing through the front entrance.
"Daniel!" Amy cried out, dropping to her knees beside him, ignoring her own physical strain.
Daniel groaned, clutching his bloodied shoulder, but his eyes were focused entirely on her face. "Are you... are you hurt? Did she touch you?"
"I'm fine! You idiot, why did you do that?!" Amy cried, pressing her hands against his wound to stop the bleeding.
"Because... you and the baby... are the only things that matter," Daniel whispered, his vision fading at the edges. "I'm sorry, Amy... I'm so sorry..."
Three hours later, Daniel woke up in the intensive care unit of Newport Community Hospital. The bullet had been extracted, and his condition was stable.
Beside his bed sat his mother, Margaret. But Amy was not in the room.
"Where is she?" Daniel demanded instantly, trying to sit up despite the searing pain in his shoulder. "Mom, where is Amy?"
"She’s in labor, Daniel," Margaret said softly. "The trauma and stress of tonight triggered early contractions. She’s in the maternity wing right now."
Daniel ripped the IV monitor from his arm. "Take me to her."
"Daniel, wait!" Margaret held him back. "Before you go in there, you need to know what happened in New York while you were on the flight here."
She turned on the television mounted on the hospital wall. A financial news anchor was speaking against a backdrop of falling stock charts:
“Breaking News: In a sudden boardroom coup, the executive board of Harrison Freight Systems, backed by Cole Enterprises, has officially voted to remove Daniel Harrison as CEO, citing corporate negligence and misuse of company funds. Harrison’s assets have been frozen pending a full federal investigation...”
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Daniel stared at the screen. In a single night, he had been shot, disgraced, stripped of his corporate crown, and declared bankrupt.
The empire he had spent fifteen years building at the expense of his soul was gone.
