Chapter 6 - The Trial Before the Baby Was BornVivienne's attorney filed for emergency custody.
The hearing was scheduled within forty-eight hours.
The timing was not accidental.
The judge received the psychiatric report claiming I was suffering from severe emotional instability.
The opposing attorney called me delusional.
She said I had imagined Reid's return.
Then Reid walked into the courtroom.
The room fell silent.
The judge stared.
“Captain Marlowe?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
The opposing attorney went pale.
Vivienne sat behind her lawyer.
She did not look frightened.
She looked furious.
The hearing lasted three hours.
Daniel presented the forged casualty notice.
The bank records.
The hidden photographs.
The surveillance equipment.
The false medical report.
Then Julian testified.
Vivienne's lawyer attacked him.
Called him unreliable.
Called him a criminal.
Julian accepted every accusation.
Then Daniel produced the final evidence.
A recorded conversation between Vivienne and the physician.
On the recording, Vivienne said:
“She only needs to appear unstable until the baby is born.”
The courtroom erupted.
The judge ordered an immediate investigation.
Vivienne was taken into custody.
But before she left, she looked at Reid.
“You think you've won?”
Reid said nothing.
She smiled.
“You still don't know where your father is.”
Then she was gone.
That night, my labor began.
Too early.
Reid drove me to the hospital while Daniel contacted the authorities.
Pain came in waves.
Fear came with it.
I gripped Reid's hand.
“Don't leave me.”
“I won't.”
“Promise.”
“I promise.”
For hours, he stayed beside me.
Then the monitors began alarming.
The doctor rushed in.
“We're losing the baby's heart rate.”
Everything became noise.
Doctors.
Nurses.
Machines.
Reid kissed my forehead.
“Look at me.”
I did.
“Our daughter is coming.”
“I’m scared.”
“So am I.”
“You're supposed to be fearless.”
He smiled.
“I was never fearless.”
Then he whispered:
“I was just never afraid when you were beside me.”
The emergency room doors opened.
And our daughter was born.
A tiny cry filled the room.
I sobbed.
Reid laughed and cried at the same time.
The nurse placed our baby against my chest.
“She’s beautiful.”
Reid touched her tiny hand.
“Hello, little Marlowe.”
For the first time, the nightmare felt far away.
Then the doctor looked at the child's wrist.
“There is something unusual.”
A small birthmark.
Shaped almost like a crescent.
Reid froze.
“My father had that.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“He had the same mark.”
The doctor smiled.
“Probably genetic.”
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But Reid wasn't smiling.
He was staring at our daughter as though she had just unlocked another secret.
