Chapter 10 - The Birth in the Dark
I woke inside a moving vehicle.
My wrists were tied.
A cloth covered my eyes, and something sharp pressed against the back of my hand where the IV remained inserted.
The baby monitor was gone.
I could hear two men in the front seats and a woman beside me.
“She’s waking up,” the woman said.
A contraction tightened across my abdomen.
This one felt different.
Deeper.
Stronger.
I counted breaths the way the childbirth instructor had taught me before David decided classes were a waste of money.
The pain faded after nearly a minute.
Another contraction began less than five minutes later.
“I’m in labor,” I said.
One of the men laughed.
“That’s the idea.”
They had induced labor.
Panic surged through me.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To someone who has been waiting a long time for his son.”
David.
The vehicle slowed and turned onto rough ground.
Through the fabric over my eyes, I saw shifting lights.
When the vehicle stopped, they dragged me into a building.
The air smelled of disinfectant.
A medical clinic.
The blindfold was removed.
I recognized the faded blue walls from photographs of St. Matthew’s Reproductive Center.
The clinic had supposedly closed after the fire.
Yet one section remained intact.
Medical equipment had been prepared.
A portable incubator stood near the wall.
David entered wearing surgical scrubs.
“You look terrible,” he said.
I pulled against the restraints.
“You drugged me.”
“You forced me to improvise.”
“Where are Wyatt and Claire?”
“Alive, last I heard.”
Another contraction doubled me over.
David watched with detached interest.
“I had hoped to wait two more weeks, but federal attention made that impossible.”
“You’re going to prison.”
“Only if they find me.”
“You can’t hide forever.”
“I don’t need forever. I need enough time to transfer the trust and leave the country.”
He placed his hand on my stomach.
I recoiled.
“Don’t touch me.”
His fingers pressed harder.
“This child exists because of my family.”
“This child exists because you violated me.”
Anger flashed across his face.
He struck me.
The slap split my lip.
Then his expression softened again.
“You always make things difficult.”
A doctor entered.
I recognized her from the photograph.
Dr. Helen Ward.
“You’re dead,” I said.
She removed her mask.
“That was the intention.”
Rachel and my mother had believed Dr. Ward died in the clinic fire.
Instead, she had continued working for Charles.
“Check her,” David ordered.
The doctor examined me.
“She’s four centimeters. Fetal heart rate is irregular.”
“Perform a cesarean.”
“She is not prepared.”
“I don’t care about her.”
Dr. Ward glanced at me.
For the first time, uncertainty appeared in her face.
“You said she would be sedated.”
“Plans changed.”
David stepped away to answer a phone call.
Dr. Ward lowered her voice.
“The federal agents are closer than he thinks.”
“Help me.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
She looked toward David.
“He killed Rachel because she tried to help.”
“And he will kill you when he no longer needs you.”
Her hands froze.
“You know that.”
The next contraction came violently.
Fluid spread beneath me.
My water had broken.
The fetal monitor produced a rapid alarm.
Dr. Ward turned pale.
“The baby is in distress.”
David ended his call.
“Then get him out.”
“He may not survive surgery here.”
“Do it.”
The lights flickered.
Somewhere outside, an engine roared.
Then the entire building lost power.
Emergency lights glowed red along the floor.
David drew a gun.
“What happened?”
An explosion shattered the rear windows.
People began shouting.
Dr. Ward cut the restraints around my wrists.
“Stay down.”
She ran toward the medical cabinet.
David grabbed her.
“What are you doing?”
“Saving the child.”
“You were told not to release her.”
“She cannot deliver tied to a table.”
Gunfire sounded outside.
Wyatt’s voice echoed through the hallway.
“Anna!”
David pushed Dr. Ward aside and seized me.
He dragged me through a side door as another contraction began.
I could barely walk.
“David, stop.”
He pressed the gun against my neck.
“We’re leaving.”
We reached an underground passage beneath the clinic.
Water covered the floor.
David pulled me forward while footsteps thundered behind us.
The contraction peaked.
My legs gave out.
He tried to lift me, but I grabbed a rusted pipe and refused to move.
“You are not taking my baby.”
He struck me again.
I held the pipe.
“You weak, ungrateful—”
A figure appeared at the end of the tunnel.
Wyatt.
Blood covered one side of his shirt.
David raised the gun.
Wyatt stopped.
“Let her go.”
“You think this child belongs to you?” David shouted. “Your dead brother was nothing but breeding material.”
Wyatt’s expression went still.
David continued.
“Rachel begged too. Right before I sent her car through the guardrail.”
Wyatt’s breath changed.
He wanted to charge.
I saw it.
David saw it too.
“Come closer,” David said. “Give me a reason.”
Another pain tore through me.
I screamed.
David glanced down.
That moment was enough.
I swung the rusted pipe into his wrist.
The gun fired into the tunnel wall.
Wyatt tackled him.
They crashed into the water.
I crawled toward the wall as they fought.
David reached for the gun.
Wyatt grabbed him from behind.
Sirens sounded above us.
David kicked free and ran deeper into the tunnel.
Wyatt started after him.
“Don’t,” I gasped.
He turned.
Blood ran from a wound near his shoulder.
“Anna—”
“The baby.”
He came to me immediately.
My body had begun pushing on its own.
“I can’t stop it.”
Wyatt shouted for help.
Dr. Ward and Agent Ellis reached us minutes later.
There was no time to move me.
On the cold tunnel floor beneath a dead fertility clinic, with emergency lights flashing and federal agents searching for my husband, I gave birth.
The baby did not cry.
Dr. Ward lifted him into her arms.
“He’s not breathing.”
Everything inside me stopped.
She cleared his airway and began working.
One second.
Two.
Five.
Then a thin cry rose through the tunnel.
I collapsed against Wyatt.
Dr. Ward placed the baby on my chest.
He was tiny.
Red-faced.
Alive.
I kissed his forehead and began sobbing.
Wyatt covered us both with his coat.
Agent Ellis knelt beside us.
“We have to move. David is still inside the tunnel system.”
A gunshot echoed from the darkness.
Dr. Ward jerked backward.
Blood spread across her chest.
May you like
David’s voice came from beyond the red emergency light.
“Put my son down.”
