Chapter 2 - The Heartbeat
Daniel showed the message to Detective Marcus Hale before he showed anyone else.
Detective Hale arrived at the hospital less than twenty minutes after we did.
By then, doctors had rushed me into an examination room.
A nurse attached monitors across my stomach.
Another started an IV.
Daniel stood beside my bed without taking his eyes off the screen.
I could tell he was trying to understand numbers he had never cared about before.
Then the room filled with a rapid sound.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
My daughter’s heartbeat.
I started crying so hard I could barely breathe.
“She’s alive?”
Dr. Rebecca Shaw nodded.
“She has a heartbeat.”
Daniel bent over and pressed his forehead against mine.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Dr. Shaw did not smile.
That frightened me.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“We’re seeing signs of trauma.”
My hand moved instinctively toward my belly.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“I can’t promise that yet.”
The words hurt.
But they were honest.
Dr. Shaw explained that my daughter’s heartbeat was stable for the moment, but they needed to monitor me closely.
Then she asked a strange question.
“Did you experience dizziness before you were kicked?”
I thought about it.
“I felt strange during lunch.”
“How strange?”
“Light-headed.”
“Nauseated.”
“Almost sleepy.”
Daniel looked at me.
Dr. Shaw glanced toward the nurse.
“Did you eat or drink anything unusual?”
“My mother gave me iced tea.”
Daniel’s head turned sharply.
“She made that tea specifically for you.”
I remembered.
Everyone else had wine, lemonade, or beer.
Mom had carried a separate glass toward me.
“For the baby,” she had said.
No caffeine.
No alcohol.
Just something safe.
At least that was what I believed.
Dr. Shaw ordered blood tests.
An hour later, Detective Hale entered.
Daniel handed him the threatening message.
Hale read it twice.
“Who knew about the trust?”
“My parents.”
“Rachel.”
“My uncle Victor.”
“My mother’s attorney.”
“Possibly a few other relatives.”
“And what changes if your daughter is born alive?”
I explained Grandma Eleanor’s will.
My grandmother had built Mercer Medical Supply from a small distribution company into a nationwide corporation.
She never trusted my father with full control.
When she died, she placed most of her shares into a trust.
I received income from it.
But permanent voting control would pass to my first biological child once that child was born alive.
Until then, my father remained temporary trustee.
Detective Hale leaned back.
“And if the child doesn’t survive?”
I swallowed.
“My father keeps temporary control until I have another child.”
Daniel corrected me.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Remember the amendment?”
I stared at him.
Then I remembered.
Grandma had added another condition after learning about my father’s debts.
If my first pregnancy ended without a living birth after twenty weeks, a review committee could dissolve the controlling portion of the trust and redistribute shares among my father and his siblings.
Detective Hale became very still.
“How much money are we talking about?”
“Approximately forty million dollars in shares.”
The room went silent.
Then Dr. Shaw returned.
She closed the door behind her.
“Claire, your blood results came back.”
Daniel stood.
“What did you find?”
“There was a sedative in her system.”
I stared at her.
“I haven’t taken anything.”
“I know.”
She looked at Detective Hale.
“The amount was not therapeutic.”
Hale asked the obvious question.
“Could it have contributed to her falling after she was kicked?”
“Yes.”
Dr. Shaw looked back at me.
“And there’s something else.”
She handed Hale a preliminary report.
“The compound was mixed with another medication that can sometimes cause uterine complications during pregnancy.”
Daniel’s face went white.
I whispered the question none of us wanted to say aloud.
“You think somebody drugged me?”
Dr. Shaw did not answer.
Detective Hale did.
“Yes.”
Then his phone rang.
He listened for several seconds.
His eyes hardened.
“That was the officer at your parents’ house.”
“What happened?”
Hale looked at Daniel first.
May you like
Then at me.
“The glass you were drinking from is gone.”
