Chapter 15 - The Lowest Hour
The NICU team surrounded Noah’s incubator.
I heard instructions.
Medication dosages.
The controlled rhythm of chest compressions.
I could not move.
Grandfather held my shoulders while my entire body shook.
Dr. Morales remained with Elise’s surgical team.
Another neonatologist worked on Noah.
Thirty seconds passed.
Then sixty.
The monitor remained silent.
I remembered Grant’s voice.
Tiny burdens.
I remembered signing the papers.
I remembered believing that remaining calm meant I was strong.
There was no calm left in me.
I pressed both hands against the glass.
“Noah, please.”
The monitor produced one faint tone.
Then another.
His heart rhythm returned.
The doctor continued treatment.
Noah had suffered an episode of severe bradycardia triggered by inflammation and stress.
He was alive.
He was not stable.
At the same time, Elise was taken into surgery.
My children were now fighting in separate rooms.
I could not follow either of them.
Margaret entered with news from the courthouse.
Grant’s attorney had filed a motion to invalidate every action taken by Emma’s trust.
He claimed I lacked mental capacity because of pain medication.
He also claimed my grandfather had concealed my identity during the marriage, making the financial agreement fraudulent.
If the motion succeeded, Grant could regain temporary control of Keller Medical.
He could access company servers.
He could destroy evidence.
Margaret expected the judge to deny the motion.
Then she discovered the assigned judge had once served on a charity board with Calvin.
The hearing would begin in two hours.
I looked at Grandfather.
“Take me there.”
“You cannot leave the hospital.”
“I can testify by video.”
“Emma, Noah almost died.”
“And Grant is still trying to erase what happened.”
I wiped my face.
“He thinks grief will silence me.”
The hearing began while Elise’s chest was open in an operating room and Noah’s heart was being supported by medication.
Grant appeared from jail through a secure video connection.
He smiled when he saw me.
His attorney produced a document bearing my signature.
It stated that I had transferred the trust’s voting rights to Grant six months earlier.
May you like
For one terrible moment, even Margaret had no answer.
The signature looked real.
