Chapter 4 - Emma's Secret
Alexander reached the trauma unit seconds before they wheeled Emma through the doors.
He almost did not recognize her.
Seven years had changed her.
Not in the ways he expected.
Her dark hair was shorter.
Her face thinner.
A bruise spread along one temple.
Blood darkened the side of her coat.
But it was Emma.
Absolutely.
Painfully.
Her eyes opened briefly as the gurney passed.
They found him.
“Alexander?”
He moved beside her.
“I'm here.”
Her hand reached weakly toward him.
“Lily.”
“She’s alive.”
Emma exhaled.
“Don't let them—”
Her eyes closed.
“Emma?”
The trauma team pushed him back.
“Sir, you need to step away.”
“Emma!”
The doors closed.
Alexander stood motionless.
Seven years of anger should have arrived.
It didn't.
Only fear did.
Marcus caught up.
“How bad?”
“Gunshot.”
“Police?”
“Get them.”
“Already coming.”
Alexander looked toward the surgical wing.
One woman he had once loved was behind one set of doors.
A daughter he had just discovered was behind another.
For the first time in his adult life, Alexander Davenport had no power over either outcome.
He hated helplessness.
By noon, Lily was in surgery.
Emma was undergoing emergency repair for a gunshot wound that had missed an artery by less than an inch.
Alexander sat between the two wings.
Claire came out after the first hour.
“The surgery is progressing.”
“Complications?”
“Not at this point.”
“What valve did they use?”
“An alternative device manufactured by a Swedish company.”
“Good.”
Claire sat beside him.
“You were right about Davenport Medical.”
“I wish I wasn't.”
“The records Marcus showed me are serious.”
“People knew.”
“Yes.”
“My family knew.”
Claire looked at him.
“That's different from you knowing.”
He stared at the floor.
“My name is on the building that manufactured those devices.”
“Your name is also on the man sitting here trying to expose it.”
He looked at her.
“Doctors always talk like that?”
“Only when billionaires become unnecessarily dramatic.”
A laugh escaped him.
Small.
Unexpected.
Then the trauma surgeon appeared.
“Mr. Davenport?”
Alexander stood instantly.
“Emma Morgan?”
“She made it through surgery.”
His shoulders dropped slightly.
“Can I see her?”
“When she wakes.”
Hours passed.
The board voted to suspend Alexander temporarily.
Marcus informed him at 3:17 P.M.
Alexander barely reacted.
“They did it?”
“Seven to five.”
“Richard?”
“Yes.”
“Freeze every document you legally can.”
“Already done.”
“Send copies outside company servers.”
“Done.”
Alexander looked at him.
“You're annoyingly competent.”
“I've been waiting thirteen years for you to notice.”
At 5:40, Lily's surgeon emerged.
Alexander stood so quickly his chair struck the wall.
“The repair went well.”
He closed his eyes.
Just once.
“She's okay?”
“The next twenty-four hours matter, but yes. She's stable.”
Alexander breathed.
Really breathed.
“Can I see her?”
“Soon.”
At 7:12, Emma woke.
Alexander entered her room alone.
She looked at him for a long time.
“You got old.”
He stared.
“You got shot.”
“I noticed.”
He sat.
For several seconds, neither knew what to do with seven missing years.
Finally Alexander said, “She's mine.”
Emma closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You never told me.”
“I tried.”
His anger arrived then.
Not explosively.
Worse.
Quiet.
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
“You sent me one text ending our relationship.”
“Because your father threatened to kill you.”
Alexander stared.
Emma continued.
“I was pregnant.”
“You could have told me.”
“I did.”
“No.”
“I called your office.”
“You never spoke to me.”
“I spoke to Richard.”
Alexander felt cold.
“He told me you wanted nothing to do with the pregnancy.”
“I didn't know.”
“I learned that later.”
“When?”
“After Lily was born.”
“Why didn't you come back?”
“Because by then your father knew about the files I had copied.”
“Project Sparrow.”
Emma nodded.
“I found pediatric device failures being erased from reports. Payments to physicians. Settlements hidden through subsidiaries.”
“Why didn't you go to authorities?”
“I was going to.”
“What stopped you?”
“Your father.”
She looked toward the window.
“He showed me photographs of you.”
Alexander's expression hardened.
“What kind of photographs?”
“You entering your office. Leaving restaurants. Running in Central Park.”
“He had me followed?”
“He said accidents happened every day.”
Alexander's hands curled.
Emma continued.
“He offered me money to disappear.”
“Did you take it?”
“Yes.”
That hurt.
She saw it.
“I took every dollar.”
“Why?”
“To make him believe he'd won.”
Alexander said nothing.
“I used it to move,” Emma said. “Changed names twice. Paid for Lily's medical care. Hired someone to preserve the evidence.”
“Evelyn Hart.”
Emma looked surprised.
“You met her?”
“She came here.”
“Then she knows.”
“Some.”
Alexander leaned closer.
“Why contact me now?”
“Because Lily got worse.”
“You could have contacted me years ago.”
“I did.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
He stared.
“I sent letters.”
“I never received them.”
“Someone did.”
Richard.
The name didn't need to be spoken.
Emma's eyes filled.
“I wanted Lily to know you.”
Alexander's anger faltered.
“She already knew me.”
“I told her stories.”
“What stories?”
“The good ones.”
He almost smiled.
“There weren't many.”
“There were enough.”
Emma reached toward the table.
Her hand trembled.
Alexander instinctively helped her.
She stopped.
Their fingers touched.
For a moment, seven years disappeared.
Then Emma pulled away.
“I'm sorry.”
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
Alexander stood.
“I don't know if I can forgive you.”
“I know.”
“But I'm not taking Lily away from you.”
Emma looked at him sharply.
“I thought you might.”
“I considered being angry enough to want everything.”
“That sounds like you.”
“But she loves you.”
Emma's eyes filled.
“She does.”
“And apparently she has terrible judgment because she already seems to like me.”
Emma laughed, then winced.
Alexander moved closer.
“Don't.”
“Don't make me laugh?”
“Until you stop being full of holes.”
Their eyes met.
Something fragile passed between them.
Then Emma's expression changed.
“The locket.”
“I have it.”
“No. Inside it.”
“The photos?”
“Behind your photograph.”
Alexander frowned.
“There was nothing behind it.”
“There is a micro-storage chip.”
His heart rate changed.
“What’s on it?”
“Original Sparrow data.”
“All of it?”
“Enough to destroy them.”
“Where's the rest?”
Emma hesitated.
“Lily knows.”
Alexander stared at her.
“You gave a six-year-old evidence?”
“I gave her a game.”
“What game?”
“A treasure hunt.”
Of course she had.
Emma had always been smarter than anyone expected.
“Where does it lead?”
“She'll only tell you if you say the phrase.”
“What phrase?”
Emma looked at him carefully.
“The thing you told me in Florence when we got lost.”
Alexander remembered instantly.
He hadn't thought of that night in years.
They had missed the last train.
Emma had panicked.
He had laughed.
Then he had taken her hand and said—
“We'll find our way home.”
Emma nodded.
“That's it.”
The door opened.
Marcus entered.
“Sorry.”
Alexander turned.
“What?”
“We have a problem.”
“That phrase has lost all meaning today.”
Marcus handed him a phone.
Security footage.
Hospital parking garage.
A man approached an officer.
The officer turned.
The man struck him.
Then took his access badge.
Alexander leaned closer.
“Who is that?”
Marcus froze the frame.
Richard Davenport.
Alexander stared.
“Why is he here?”
A hospital alarm sounded.
Then another.
Lights above the hallway flashed.
Security lockdown.
Alexander looked toward Lily's floor.
Marcus's radio crackled.
“Unauthorized access. Pediatric cardiac unit.”
Alexander ran.
He reached the elevators.
Locked.
He took the stairs.
Three flights.
Four.
By the time he hit pediatrics, guards were moving toward Lily's room.
The door stood open.
The bed was empty.
Alexander stopped breathing.
A nurse was crying.
Claire stood beside the abandoned monitor.
“Where is she?”
Claire turned slowly.
“Alexander…”
“Where is my daughter?”
She pointed toward the service corridor.
On the floor near the door lay Lily's stuffed rabbit.
Its fabric ear had been cut open.
Something was missing from inside.
And at the far end of the corridor, the service elevator doors were closing.
May you like
Richard stood inside.
Lily was in his arms.
