Chapter 8 - The Night Lily Arrived
Adrian reached Maya before the emergency lights came on.
He pulled her away from the door and guided her behind the reinforced wall beside the examination room. Grant's team moved through the corridor, shouting instructions as the backup generator struggled to engage.
Another gunshot rang out.
Then silence.
“Stay here,” Adrian whispered.
Maya caught his wrist.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“If you go out there, you don't go alone.”
For the first time, he didn't argue.
He kept her behind him as they moved toward the secure stairwell. Grant appeared at the far end of the hall, his weapon lowered.
“It's clear,” he said. “One attacker is down. The other escaped through the loading entrance.”
“Where's Eleanor?” Adrian demanded.
“Not here.”
Maya felt a sharp pressure in her abdomen.
She stopped walking.
Adrian turned immediately.
“Maya?”
She gripped his sleeve.
“I think something's wrong.”
Dr. Brooks appeared from a nearby room, carrying a medical bag.
“Let's get you back inside.”
Maya tried to take a breath, but another contraction rolled through her, stronger than the previous ones.
Dr. Brooks examined her and looked toward Adrian.
“She's in labor.”
For a moment, the entire hallway seemed to disappear.
Adrian stared at Maya.
“Already?”
“Babies don't consult your schedule,” Maya managed to say.
Despite the fear in his face, he let out a startled laugh.
Then another contraction hit, and the laughter vanished.
The clinic's maternity unit remained operational, but the security breach forced Dr. Brooks to move Maya to a protected delivery suite on the lower floor. Nurses arrived with equipment. Grant stationed guards at the entrances. Adrian was asked to remain outside until Maya was settled.
He stood in the corridor, hands trembling.
Nicholas found him there.
“She'll be okay,” his brother said.
Adrian stared at the closed door.
“I should have been there.”
“You're here now.”
“I wasn't there when she found out she was pregnant. I wasn't there when she went to appointments alone. I wasn't there when she was afraid.”
Nicholas leaned against the wall.
“You can't repair every day you missed by punishing yourself in the hallway.”
Adrian looked at him.
“You knew what Victor was doing.”
“I suspected. I didn't have proof.”
“You could have told me.”
“I tried. You wouldn't listen.”
The accusation landed because it was true.
Adrian had spent so long believing control was the same as strength that he had mistaken every warning for a challenge to his authority.
He looked at the closed door again.
“I'm going to have to learn how to be a father.”
Nicholas gave a sad smile.
“Then start by letting her decide what kind of father you get to be.”
Hours passed.
Adrian paced until Grant finally ordered him to sit down. He refused food, barely touched water, and stared at the door every time he heard footsteps.
Near midnight, Dr. Brooks emerged.
“Mother and baby are stable,” she said. “Your daughter arrived early, but she's breathing well. We're monitoring her closely.”
Adrian's knees nearly gave way.
“Can I see them?”
“Maya asked for you.”
He entered the room slowly.
Maya lay exhausted against the pillows, her hair damp, her face pale. In her arms rested a tiny baby wrapped in a white blanket.
Lily.
Their daughter.
She had a small nose, a dark fringe of hair, and a fierce little frown that made Maya smile despite her exhaustion.
Adrian stopped beside the bed.
“She's beautiful.”
Maya looked at him.
“Yes, she is.”
He reached toward the baby, then stopped.
“May I?”
Maya studied his face.
For months, she had imagined him meeting their daughter. In some fantasies, he wept. In others, he begged forgiveness. In the cruelest, she refused to let him near them.
The reality was quieter.
She shifted Lily carefully into his arms.
Adrian held his daughter as if she were made of light.
The baby opened her eyes briefly, then curled one tiny hand around his finger.
His face crumpled.
“I didn't know,” he whispered.
Maya's eyes filled.
“I know.”
“I would have come.”
“You should have asked.”
He bowed his head.
“You're right.”
Lily made a small sound and settled against his chest.
Adrian began to cry without making a sound.
Maya looked away to give him privacy, but he reached for her hand with his free one.
“I can't ask you to forgive me tonight,” he said. “I can't promise that wanting to be here makes up for not being here before.”
“No,” Maya whispered.
“But I can promise that I won't make another decision about your life without you.”
She studied him.
“That's a beginning.”
A nurse entered to check Lily's temperature. She smiled at the baby, adjusted the blanket, and left.
A few minutes later, Maya noticed a small envelope tucked beneath the baby's identification bracelet.
Her heart stopped.
“Adrian.”
He followed her gaze.
The envelope was addressed to Maya in handwriting she recognized from the old photograph.
Inside was a single photograph.
Eleanor stood outside the maternity clinic, holding a newborn in her arms. Beside her was a younger Thomas Vale.
On the back, someone had written:
ONE CHILD WAS SAVED. THE OTHER WAS NEVER LOST.
Maya stared at the words.
Then her phone vibrated.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
Congratulations on Lily's birth. I hope you'll forgive me for not attending. —Samuel
A second message followed.
Ask Adrian who signed the order to kill my father.
Maya looked up.
Adrian was still holding their daughter.
“What's wrong?” he asked.
She showed him the phone.
He read the message, and the color drained from his face.
“I never ordered anyone to kill Thomas Vale.”
Maya believed him.
May you like
What frightened her was the possibility that someone had forged his signature years ago.
And that the truth had been waiting for their daughter to be born.
