Chapter 7 - CODE BLUE
The ambulance reached the hospital in eleven minutes.
To Harrison, it felt like eleven years.
Khloe lost consciousness twice.
Her blood pressure collapsed.
The fetal monitor showed severe distress.
By the time they entered the emergency department, doctors were already preparing an operating room.
A trauma surgeon stopped Harrison outside the doors.
"We may need to deliver the baby immediately."
"Do it."
"We also suspect internal bleeding."
"Whatever you need."
"Mr. Cole, I need you to understand."
Harrison's face hardened.
"No."
The surgeon paused.
"I don't need to understand."
Harrison pointed toward the doors.
"I need my sister alive."
The doctor disappeared.
Harrison stood alone in the hallway.
His suit was covered in Khloe's blood.
His hands were wrapped in temporary bandages.
A nurse offered him water.
He did not take it.
Twenty minutes later, police arrived.
Detective Elena Ruiz introduced herself.
"I need to ask what you saw."
"I saw Vanessa Kensington at the top of the stairs."
"Did you see the actual push?"
"No."
"Did your sister say anything?"
"She asked me to save her baby."
Ruiz's expression softened.
Harrison continued.
"Then Richard Harrington told Vanessa not to say anything."
Ruiz wrote that down.
"What happened before the fall?"
"I don't know."
"Are there cameras?"
"Every public entrance in that courthouse has surveillance."
Ruiz nodded.
"We're already requesting footage."
Harrison finally looked directly at her.
"Do not allow Richard Harrington to touch that evidence."
"Why would he?"
"Because he has spent six years stealing from my sister."
Ruiz stopped writing.
Harrison explained the forged signatures.
The shell corporations.
The emergency injunction.
The pending federal inquiry.
Ruiz's face changed.
"So this may not be just a domestic dispute."
"No."
Harrison's voice became frighteningly calm.
"This may be motive."
The operating room doors opened.
A doctor approached.
Harrison stood.
"Your niece was delivered by emergency cesarean."
Harrison's knees almost gave out.
"Is she alive?"
"Yes."
He closed his eyes.
The doctor continued.
"She's premature and in respiratory distress, but she's alive."
"And Khloe?"
The doctor's expression told him before the words did.
"Your sister suffered a placental abruption, significant internal bleeding, and a traumatic head injury."
"Is she alive?"
"Yes."
Harrison exhaled.
"But she's critical."
"Can I see her?"
"Not yet."
Another nurse approached carrying a clear hospital bag.
Inside were Khloe's belongings.
Her broken phone.
Her earrings.
Her wedding ring.
And a blue thread caught around the cracked corner of her phone case.
Harrison stared at it.
May you like
He did not know why it bothered him.
Not yet.
