Chapter 6 - The Recording Before Midnight.
Daniel advised Emma not to listen immediately.
She ignored him.
They moved into a smaller consultation room away from the NICU.
Vanessa sat across the table.
Her hands remained wrapped around a paper cup she never drank from.
Daniel inserted the flash drive into an isolated laptop.
An audio file appeared.
The timestamp was 11:47 p.m.
The night before Emma's emergency hospitalization.
Daniel pressed play.
Grant's voice filled the room.
"You said she would be out of the company by now."
Another voice answered.
Vanessa.
"She's pregnant with twins, Grant."
"Exactly."
Emma's fingers went cold.
The recording continued.
"Her doctor already told her to reduce stress."
Vanessa sounded irritated.
"What do you want me to do about that?"
Grant answered.
"Nothing."
There was a pause.
Then his voice became quieter.
"I just need her to stop asking questions."
Emma remembered that week.
She had noticed unexpected vendor payments.
Grant claimed the finance department had reclassified expenses.
She emailed him asking for clarification.
He never responded.
Vanessa's recorded voice continued.
"She wants to come to Monday's board meeting."
"She won't."
"How do you know?"
"Because I'll convince her she needs bed rest."
Vanessa laughed nervously.
"You aren't her doctor."
"No."
Grant's voice became amused.
"But she believes me."
Emma looked away from the laptop.
Daniel paused the recording.
"Do you want to stop?"
"No."
He resumed.
Several minutes of less important conversation passed.
Then Grant said something else.
"If the babies come early, everything becomes easier."
Emma stopped breathing.
Vanessa's recorded voice snapped back.
"That's a horrible thing to say."
"I'm being practical."
"They're your children."
"They're complications."
Emma's eyes closed.
The next words were worse.
"I never wanted twins."
Silence filled the conference room.
Daniel stopped the recording.
Emma stared at the table.
Her hands were clenched so tightly that her nails had cut into her palms.
Vanessa was crying.
"I should have told you."
Emma looked at her.
"Yes."
"I didn't think he meant anything."
"He called his children complications before they were even born."
Vanessa wiped her face.
"I thought he was just angry."
Emma stood too quickly.
Pain shot through her abdomen.
Daniel reached toward her.
"Emma."
"I'm fine."
She wasn't.
She walked slowly to the window.
Cars moved far below the hospital.
People continued their ordinary lives while her own seemed to be separating into before and after.
Before the recording.
After the recording.
Before Grant called her babies burdens.
After she understood he had resented their existence long before the NICU.
Daniel spoke gently.
"The recording doesn't prove he caused your placental abruption."
"I know."
"And we shouldn't suggest that without evidence."
"I know."
Emma pressed her hand against the glass.
"But it proves what kind of man he was becoming."
Vanessa looked down.
"He changed after the company started struggling."
Emma turned.
"No."
Vanessa flinched.
"He didn't change because the company struggled."
Emma's voice was quiet.
"He revealed himself because he thought I was weak enough that it no longer mattered."
A nurse rushed into the room.
"Emma."
Everything else vanished from Emma's mind.
"What happened?"
"It's Elise."
Emma was moving before the nurse finished.
She reached the NICU to find three doctors around her daughter's incubator.
Monitors sounded sharply.
Elise's oxygen level had dropped.
Her tiny body looked impossibly small beneath the lights.
Emma stopped at the glass.
"No."
Dr. Sloan approached.
"Her lungs are struggling more today."
"What do you need to do?"
"We may need to increase respiratory support."
"Do it."
"We are."
Emma pressed one hand against the incubator.
"Come on, sweetheart."
Elise's fingers twitched.
Emma started crying.
"Mommy's here."
Charles arrived minutes later.
He found Emma standing beside the incubator.
He didn't ask about lawyers.
He didn't ask about Grant.
He simply stood beside his granddaughter.
For six hours, Elise's numbers rose and fell.
Emma forgot revenge.
She forgot money.
She forgot the company.
She cared only about one tiny heartbeat.
Shortly after midnight, Dr. Sloan finally approached.
"She's responding."
Emma's knees nearly gave out.
"She's stable?"
"For now."
Emma covered her mouth.
Charles held her.
The emotional exhaustion finally broke through every defense she had built.
"I almost lost her."
Charles closed his eyes.
"I know."
Emma cried against his shoulder.
"I don't care about the money."
"I know."
"I don't care about winning."
"I know."
"I just want them alive."
Charles looked at Noah and Elise.
"Then that's what matters tonight."
Across the city, Grant was watching television.
The screen showed a photograph of Holloway Medical Supply headquarters.
The report mentioned patient safety investigations and missing corporate records.
His phone buzzed.
It was Peter Lang.
Only one text appeared.
I told them everything.
Grant stood so suddenly that the glass in his hand fell.
Then another message arrived.
This one came from his attorney.
Search warrants are expected tomorrow morning.
Grant looked toward the hallway.
Vanessa's suitcase was gone.
So was her passport.
He rushed to his office safe.
The door stood open.
The Cayman account documents had disappeared.
May you like
And in their place was a handwritten note.
You were going to leave me first.
