Chapter 1
Then Hannah looked at him. Her face was colorless, her breathing shallow, and both hands were pressed beneath the curve of her abdomen.
“Caleb, I cannot feel the baby moving.”
The accusation forming inside him disappeared beneath terror. He dropped his travel bag and crossed the room, catching her before she collapsed completely. Hannah gripped his sleeve while another contraction tightened through her body.
“Someone answered for me,” she whispered.
Caleb barely understood the sentence. He pulled out his phone, but his hands shook so violently that he entered the emergency number incorrectly before finally reaching the dispatcher. He answered questions about the pregnancy, bleeding, consciousness, pain, and fetal movement while pressing a clean towel against Hannah’s lower body. The dispatcher instructed him not to move her and confirmed that paramedics were already approaching.
“I called you seventeen times,” Hannah said.
“My phone was turned off during the flight. I came home early because I wanted to surprise you.”
She closed her eyes. “I called your mother afterward.”
Caleb felt cold despite the warm room. His mother, Lorraine Rowan, possessed an emergency number for his construction sites because Caleb often worked inside areas with limited cellular service. Hannah had apparently contacted her when he could not be reached.
“What did she say?”
Hannah struggled for breath. “She said I was panicking again. She told me the hospital said I should lie down and wait.”
Caleb stared at her. Lorraine had never liked Hannah, although she rarely expressed that dislike directly. She preferred comments that sounded protective. Hannah was too emotional. Hannah used pregnancy to demand attention. Hannah exaggerated minor symptoms because she enjoyed controlling Caleb’s schedule. Caleb usually answered that his mother meant well, then encouraged Hannah to avoid conflict.
The paramedics arrived before he could ask more. They entered with a stretcher, monitoring equipment, and the efficient urgency that immediately made Caleb understand how serious the situation had become. One medic examined the bleeding and exchanged a look with his partner.
“Possible placental abruption. We are leaving immediately.”
As they moved Hannah downstairs, a paramedic picked up the unfamiliar jacket and handed it to Caleb, assuming it belonged to him. Inside the ambulance, Hannah’s blood pressure continued falling. Oxygen covered half her face while Caleb held her hand and tried not to remember the suspicion that had occupied him when she needed belief more than anything else.
At Harbor Regional Medical Center, the obstetric team rushed Hannah through surgical doors. Caleb remained in the corridor wearing a shirt stained with blood. Only then did he search the unfamiliar jacket. The identification card inside belonged to Dr. Elias Morgan, an obstetrician affiliated with Hannah’s medical practice. Caleb recognized the name. Elias was covering for Hannah’s regular physician during a professional conference. The jacket did not belong to a lover. It belonged to the doctor who had apparently reached Hannah before her husband did.
Caleb checked his phone and found seventeen missed calls, four incomplete voice messages, and one recording sent nearly two hours earlier. Hannah’s weak voice filled the silent corridor.
“Caleb, the doctor said I need emergency care, but your mother called back and said she spoke with the hospital. She says I should stop frightening everyone and wait until you come home.”
The message ended abruptly. A maternity nurse approached carrying Hannah’s phone inside a clear evidence pouch.
May you like
“Before your wife lost consciousness, she asked us to show you the final message she received.”
The screen displayed a photograph of Dr. Morgan standing outside their townhouse with his medical bag. Beneath the photograph, Lorraine had written: Do not return home yet. She is about to tell you everything.
