Chapter 6 - Desperate Measures
The obstetrical triage unit on the fourth floor was a whirlwind of beeping monitors, sterile sheets, and urgent voices.
"She’s only thirty-four weeks and two days," Dr. Chen said, her face taut as she reviewed the fetal monitor strip. "Contractions are four minutes apart. The membrane has definitely ruptured. We need to administer betamethasone immediately for the baby’s lung development and start a magnesium sulfate drip to slow down labor."
"Is she safe?" I cried out, gripping the side rail of the hospital bed as another contraction rolled through my pelvis like a tidal wave of fire. "Dr. Chen, is my baby safe?"
"Her heart rate is stable, Tessa, but she’s early," Dr. Chen said, placing a warm hand on my forehead. "We’re going to try to keep her inside for at least forty-eight hours to let the steroids work. But you have to breathe. You have to let us stabilize you."
Outside in the hallway, the hospital was on lockdown.
Diane Vance had already coordinated with the hospital’s legal counsel to ensure that neither Gavin Montgomery nor any representative from Arthur Vance’s firm was permitted anywhere on the maternal-infant floor.
While the magnesium drip burned like liquid fire through the IV in my left arm, Diane sat in the corner armchair, her laptop resting on her knees, working the phone with ruthless efficiency.
"Mark Hayes just finished the emergency board meeting," Diane reported softly, looking up from her screen as the contraction subsided. "Montgomery & Hayes is officially dissolved. Mark is reforming the firm as Hayes Architectural Group. He's filing criminal embezzlement charges with the county prosecutor against Gavin by five o'clock."
I closed my eyes, breathing through the nausea caused by the magnesium. "What about Maren?"
"That’s where it gets interesting," Diane said, leaning forward. "Maren’s little marketing firm had its assets frozen this morning by federal order. Do you know what she did three hours ago?"
"What?"
"She went to Gavin’s temporary apartment at the Marriott—the one he rented after you kicked him out. She found his emergency safe in the closet. She cleaned out fifty thousand dollars in cash, his passport, and the title to his Porsche, and she tried to board a flight to Miami."
I opened my eyes, staring at Diane in utter disbelief. "She robbed him?"
"Honor among thieves, Tessa," Diane said with a humorless smirk. "When wolves get trapped in a corner, they don't fight together. They eat each other. But she didn't make the flight. Port Authority picked her up at Detroit Metro Airport because her name was flagged on the federal wire fraud watch list Marcus Webb initiated yesterday."
A strange, hollow silence settled over the hospital room.
Eleven years of friendship. Eleven years of shared birthdays, holiday dinners, crying over broken hearts, and planning our futures. Maren had thrown it all away for an affair with a man she was now robbing blind while running from federal marshals.
"Where is she now?" I asked.
"Wayne County detention center, awaiting arraignment," Diane replied. "And Arthur Vance just dropped her as a client because her checks bounced."
Before I could process the poetic justice of Maren’s downfall, my mother slipped into the room, carrying a fresh cup of ice chips. Her eyes were red-rimmed, but her chin was set with iron resolve.
"Lorraine is downstairs," Clara announced quietly.
I flinched. "Gavin’s mother?"
"She’s been sitting in the waiting room for four hours, Tessa," Clara said, brushing a damp curl of hair back from my forehead. "She refused to leave. She told security she didn't want to see Gavin; she wanted to know if her granddaughter was alive. She brought this."
Clara reached into her tote bag and pulled out a small, vintage wooden box.
I recognized it immediately. It was the Montgomery family heirloom—a delicate silver baby rattle that had belonged to Gavin’s grandmother, inscribed with the initials of five generations of firstborn daughters.
"She told me to give it to you," Clara said softly. "She said she understands if you throw it in the trash. But she wanted you to know that she has disinherited Gavin from her estate. She signed the codicil in the hospital cafeteria with her own lawyer an hour ago."
A tear slipped down my cheek, hot and stinging against my skin.
Lorraine was a proud, difficult woman who had spent her entire life defending her son’s flaws. For her to sever ties with him so completely, so publicly, meant that the illusion of the "perfect family" had been shattered beyond any hope of repair.
"Tell her..." I choked back a sob, gripping the silver rattle in my hand. "Tell her she can see the baby once she’s born. Supervised. But she can see her."
Clara nodded, wiping her own eyes. "You have your grandfather's heart, Tess. Too good for this world."
"No, Mom," I said, looking down at my swollen abdomen as another contraction began to build. "I'm not doing it for Gavin. I'm doing it so my daughter knows that she was born from love, not from his poison."
At 11:30 PM, the monitors began to chime frantically.
Dr. Chen rushed into the room, followed by four neonatal nurses. The fetal heart rate had suddenly dipped to ninety beats per minute.
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"The cord is compressed," Dr. Chen said, her voice dropping all pleasantries. "The baby is in distress. We can't wait for the forty-eight-hour steroid window. We're going to the OR for an emergency C-section right now."
***
