Chapter 2 - The Woman in Navy Scrubs
Emergency lights snapped on in deep red strips along the floor.
Lily screamed.
I dropped to my knees and wrapped both arms around her.
“Stay with me.”
Footsteps thundered past.
Someone shouted.
“Seal the stairwells!”
Another voice answered from the darkness.
“Generator is coming online.”
Dominic stood directly in front of us.
He had drawn a pistol.
That frightened me almost as much as the blackout.
Not because I had never imagined men like Dominic carried guns.
Because now he thought he might need one inside a hospital.
The overhead lights flickered.
Then returned.
The woman behind the service-door glass was gone.
Dominic pushed through.
Two security men followed.
I wanted to run the opposite direction.
I wanted to take Lily home, lock our apartment door, pull the curtains, and pretend none of this had happened.
But the administrator still held the access report with my name on it.
And I understood something very quickly.
Leaving would make me look guilty.
Worse, whoever had used my badge knew where I worked.
Possibly where I lived.
“Ms. Morales.”
I turned.
The administrator’s name badge read HAROLD VANCE.
“Where is your hospital badge?”
My hand moved instinctively toward my waist.
Empty.
I looked down.
It should have been clipped beside my uniform pocket.
“It was there.”
“When did you last see it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think carefully.”
I closed my eyes.
At 8:30 I had cleaned the family waiting room.
At 8:45 I had taken a stack of linens to the eighth floor.
At around nine, Lily had found me near the vending machines.
Then I had gone looking for a missing bottle of disinfectant.
My badge had been there when I entered the supply closet.
Hadn’t it?
I could not be sure.
“I had it earlier.”
Harold Vance’s expression tightened.
“Your badge was used to open the secured medication room.”
“I did not open it.”
“I understand what you’re saying.”
“No. You don’t.”
Lily touched my cheek.
“Mama.”
“What?”
“The lady took your card.”
My breath caught.
“When?”
“When you were sleeping.”
“I wasn’t sleeping.”
She frowned.
Then I understood.
The break room.
Around seven.
I had put my head down on the table for maybe five minutes while Lily colored beside me.
I had not been asleep.
Not really.
But I had closed my eyes.
“Where was the lady?”
Lily pointed toward the nurses’ station.
“She came in.”
“What did she do?”
“She touched you.”
My skin crawled.
“Where?”
Lily pointed at my waist.
Harold Vance went pale.
Dominic returned.
“Nothing in the corridor.”
I turned to him.
“Lily saw someone take my badge.”
His eyes moved to her.
“When?”
“During my break.”
Dominic knelt again.
“Lily, did the same lady take your mama’s card?”
Lily nodded.
“Did she give it back?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she say anything?”
Lily squeezed Bun-Bun.
“She said, ‘Good girl.’”
I felt sick.
“Did she talk to you?”
Lily nodded.
“What did she ask?”
“Where Mama cleans.”
Dominic stood.
His expression had changed.
“This was planned.”
Harold Vance cleared his throat.
“We should contact police.”
Dominic looked at him.
“They are already being contacted.”
“I mean immediately.”
“So do I.”
The way he said it made Vance step back.
A doctor emerged from Adrian’s room.
“He’s conscious.”
Dominic turned.
“What?”
“Barely. But conscious.”
“Can he speak?”
“A few words.”
Dominic moved toward the room.
Then Adrian’s voice came faintly from inside.
“Dominic.”
Everyone stopped.
He had not raised his voice.
He did not need to.
Dominic went in.
I could see through the glass as he leaned over Adrian’s bed.
Adrian’s eyes opened slightly.
His lips moved.
Dominic’s posture stiffened.
Then he looked toward me.
A nurse stepped out.
“He wants the woman and child.”
“What?”
“He asked for them.”
“No.”
The answer left my mouth automatically.
The nurse blinked.
“I’m sorry?”
“My daughter is not going in there.”
Dominic appeared at the door.
“He wants to thank her.”
“She has had enough.”
“He also wants to hear what she saw.”
“She is three.”
“Elena.”
It was the first time he used my first name.
I hated that it sounded less like a request and more like a warning.
I stepped closer.
“My daughter has been frightened, trapped on a floor with armed men, and told she may be the only witness to an attempted murder. She needs to go home.”
Dominic lowered his voice.
“And if whoever did this follows you home?”
That stopped me.
He continued.
“Your badge was cloned or stolen. Someone watched your routine. Someone approached your daughter. Your apartment address is in your employment file.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
“You think they know where we live?”
“I think we should assume they do.”
“Then call police.”
“We have.”
“Then let police protect us.”
“I intend to.”
“Police.”
“Yes.”
Something in his answer felt incomplete.
Before I could push, Adrian spoke again.
“Elena.”
I looked through the doorway.
His eyes were open.
Dark.
Focused.
Too focused for someone who had almost died minutes earlier.
I carried Lily inside.
The room smelled of antiseptic, plastic tubing, and something faintly medicinal.
Lily buried her face against me.
Adrian looked at her.
“You stayed.”
She peeked at him.
“You smelled bad.”
One corner of his mouth moved.
“So I’m told.”
I stared at him.
“You almost died.”
“Yes.”
“Someone tried to kill you.”
“Yes.”
“And you are calm.”
“I am angry.”
His voice was weak.
The difference was somehow worse.
Lily leaned toward him.
“Are you gonna die now?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Adrian looked at Dominic.
“Because the person who tried once will not get a second chance.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
I did not want Lily hearing that.
I shifted her.
“We’re leaving.”
Adrian looked at me.
“Not yet.”
“You don’t control me.”
“No.”
He took a slow breath.
“But I may be the only reason you stay alive tonight.”
I froze.
He glanced toward Dominic.
“Tell her.”
Dominic nodded.
“The hospital security office checked camera footage.”
“And?”
“The woman in navy scrubs was wearing a stolen uniform.”
“Who is she?”
“We don’t know.”
“But she used my badge.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
Dominic hesitated.
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“Tell her.”
Dominic looked at me.
“Before entering the hospital, she was photographed across the street.”
My stomach tightened.
“So?”
“She was not alone.”
He unlocked his phone and held it toward me.
The image was grainy.
A woman in a dark coat stood near a black sedan.
Her face was partially turned away.
Beside her was a man.
I recognized him immediately.
“No.”
My voice came out as a whisper.
Lily looked at me.
“Mama?”
The man in the photograph was my ex-husband.
Daniel.
Lily’s father.
A man who had disappeared eighteen months earlier after emptying our joint savings account and leaving behind six thousand dollars in debt.
“He has nothing to do with this.”
Dominic’s expression remained neutral.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he now?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did you last speak to him?”
“Almost a year ago.”
Adrian watched me.
“Why did he leave?”
“That is none of your business.”
“It became my business when he appeared beside the woman who poisoned me.”
“He wouldn’t—”
I stopped.
I did not know what Daniel would do anymore.
That was the truth.
He had once been kind.
Or I had believed he was.
Then he started gambling.
Borrowing.
Lying.
By the end, I barely recognized him.
Still, murder?
No.
I could not believe that.
Dominic took the phone back.
“The car is registered to a shell corporation.”
“What corporation?”
“We’re tracing it.”
Lily pulled on my collar.
“I want to go home.”
I kissed her forehead.
“We will.”
Adrian spoke.
“You cannot.”
I glared at him.
“She is exhausted.”
“I have a secure residence.”
“You expect me to take my daughter to a mafia compound?”
Dominic coughed into his hand.
Adrian gave him a look.
“I own a house.”
“A house surrounded by armed men.”
“A house where nobody can enter without my permission.”
“That does not make me feel better.”
“It should tonight.”
Before I could answer, two uniformed police detectives arrived.
One was a woman in her fifties named Detective Marisa Cole.
The other was younger, broad-shouldered, Detective Grant Hughes.
They separated me from Adrian’s people.
They questioned me for nearly forty minutes.
Where was I at nine?
Who had access to my badge?
Had Daniel contacted me recently?
Did I know Adrian before his hospitalization?
Had anyone offered me money?
Had anyone threatened Lily?
The questions grew sharper.
Finally, Detective Cole leaned forward.
“Elena, your badge was used.”
“I know.”
“And surveillance shows you entering the employee stairwell at 8:58.”
“What?”
She turned a tablet toward me.
A woman in a pale gray housekeeping uniform entered a stairwell.
Dark hair.
My height.
My build.
From behind, she looked exactly like me.
“That isn’t me.”
“Can you prove it?”
“I was with Rosa.”
“We’ll confirm that.”
Then Cole paused the video.
The woman turned slightly.
Her face remained hidden behind a surgical mask.
But something hung from her wrist.
A thin gold bracelet.
My bracelet.
The one my mother gave me before she died.
I looked at my wrist.
Bare.
My mouth went dry.
“They took that too.”
Cole studied me.
“Who knew you owned it?”
“Anyone who saw me at work.”
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Adrian Vale?”
“No.”
“Dominic Raines?”
“No.”
She sat back.
“This is somebody building a frame.”
I whispered, “For me.”
“Possibly.”
“Why?”
“That is what we need to find out.”
Another officer entered.
“Detective.”
He handed Cole a clear evidence bag.
Inside was my missing badge.
“Where did you find that?” I asked.
The officer looked at me.
“In Mr. Vale’s room.”
My stomach dropped.
“Where?”
“Under the bed.”
I stared through the glass wall at Adrian.
Cole stood.
“Elena, do not leave this floor.”
“I told you I did not put that there.”
“I heard you.”
Her radio crackled.
Then the officer beside her whispered something.
Cole’s face changed.
“What?”
The officer showed her his phone.
She looked at me.
Then at Lily.
“Ms. Morales, when did you say you last heard from your ex-husband?”
“Almost a year ago.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She turned the screen toward me.
A text message had been sent from Daniel’s old number.
To my phone.
Three minutes earlier.
I pulled my phone from my pocket.
One unread message.
My hands shook as I opened it.
DO EXACTLY WHAT THEY SAY OR LILY IS NEXT.
I stopped breathing.
Then another message arrived.
A photograph.
My apartment door.
Taken from inside my hallway.
May you like
Underneath it were four words.
WE ALREADY KNOW WHERE.
