Chapter 11 - The False Heartbeat.
.The photograph of the nursery frightened Claire more than the footage of Vivian pushing her.
The hospital had become a battlefield they could understand.
Their home was supposed to be the place waiting for their son.
Marcus wanted to go there immediately.
Claire stopped him with one sentence.
"If you leave me to chase another clue, they still control where you go."
He looked at her and knew she was right.
Detective Ramirez sent a tactical team to the penthouse instead.
Keller went with them after replacing every officer on Claire's floor with city police.
For ninety minutes, Marcus and Claire waited beside a secure video line.
Dr. Morris insisted Claire remain in bed.
Claire insisted the investigation screen remain where she could see it.
The penthouse door showed no forced entry.
The alarm had never triggered.
The nursery window was locked from the inside.
Whoever entered had used a valid credential.
Again.
Keller appeared on the video feed wearing gloves.
"The red folder is still on the crib."
"Open it," Marcus said.
Ramirez shook her head.
"Let forensics clear it first."
The team scanned the folder and photographed every surface.
Inside were copies of the trust documents Marcus had already seen.
Beneath them lay the original Continuity Protocol signed by Marcus's father.
A yellow note had been attached to the final page.
Ask who witnessed it.
Marcus leaned closer to the screen.
Two witness signatures appeared beneath his father's.
One belonged to the family attorney, now dead.
The second belonged to Vivian Cross.
Claire stared at Marcus.
"She knew about the protocol from the beginning."
"Yes."
"So Price didn't introduce her to it."
"No."
Marcus felt another piece of the history shift.
Vivian had not been recruited blindly.
She had been standing near the door long before Price walked through it.
Keller lifted a small memory card from the folder.
"We have digital media."
Ramirez ordered him to image it on an isolated laptop.
The card contained one audio file and a configuration program for a nursery monitor.
Marcus recognized the brand.
It was the same premium monitor already installed above Noah's crib.
Keller opened the configuration log.
Someone had programmed the device to connect remotely through Vale Security servers.
Claire whispered, "Why would they need the nursery monitor before he's born?"
No one answered until Dr. Morris came closer.
"Does it have a fetal mode?"
Marcus looked at her.
"What?"
"Some luxury systems pair with wearable maternal sensors before birth."
Claire touched the monitor band around her abdomen.
The hospital did not use the nursery brand.
But Halden had given her a home monitoring belt two months earlier.
She had used it every night until hospital admission.
Marcus remembered the device sitting in a drawer upstairs.
Keller found it in the nursery cabinet.
Its wireless ID matched the configuration program.
Dr. Morris's face tightened.
"They could transmit false readings."
Claire went pale.
"False readings like what?"
"A dangerously low fetal heart rate."
Marcus understood the purpose.
"Create an emergency at home."
Morris nodded.
"Get Claire into an ambulance."
"Send that ambulance to St. Arden under the Continuity Protocol."
Claire looked at the red folder on the screen.
"So if the hospital incident failed, they had another way to manufacture a crisis."
Ramirez pointed at the audio file.
"Play it."
Keller did.
Vivian's voice filled the conference room.
"I want out."
Daniel Price answered.
"You don't get out because you became uncomfortable."
"You said nobody would get hurt."
"I said nobody needed to get hurt."
"There is a difference."
Vivian's voice shook.
"She's having a baby, Daniel."
"So?"
"So I won't do anything to the baby."
Price laughed.
"You already installed the monitor."
Silence followed.
Then Vivian whispered, "I did that before I knew."
"You knew enough."
The recording ended.
Claire looked away.
Marcus did not defend Vivian.
Regret after participation did not erase what she had done.
But it told them something important.
"She started making copies when she became afraid of Price," Ramirez said.
"The hidden camera."
"The Lake Mercer video."
"This audio."
"She was building insurance."
Marcus's phone vibrated.
Everyone in the room froze at the sound.
He looked down.
A red alert covered the screen.
FETAL HEART RATE: CRITICAL.
Claire's hospital monitor continued showing a steady heartbeat.
Marcus held both screens side by side.
One said their son was safe.
The other said he was dying.
Dr. Morris stared at the false alert.
"The home system is still active."
Ramirez spoke slowly.
"Which means someone is still inside the network."
At the same moment, Keller's video feed from the penthouse flickered.
May you like
A shadow moved behind him.
Then the screen went black.
