Chapter 5 - Shadows in the Hospital
For the next two weeks, I lived at the hospital. I set up a makeshift workspace in the corner of Ellie’s room, refusing to leave her side for even ten minutes. The police provided a guard outside our door, but my nerves were shot. Every footstep in the corridor made my heart hammer against my ribs.
Meanwhile, the story exploded across national media. The House of Horrors in Franklin County. Headlines blared news of Maya Vance’s miraculous rescue and Grace Salazar's shocking wickedness. Arthur Vance, Maya's wealthy father, publicly offered to pay for all of Ellie's medical expenses and hired a elite legal team to ensure Grace and Brandon received the absolute maximum penalty under the law.
However, Grace was not going down quietly.
From her cell in the county jail, she used her legal phone privileges not to contact a public defender, but to call a notorious local shady fixer—a man named Ray Vance (no relation to Arthur), a disbarred attorney linked to Brandon's former gambling debts.
One rainy Tuesday night, around 2:00 AM, the hospital floor was quiet. Ellie was sleeping peacefully, her vitals stable, her hand resting on her growing bump.
I was sitting in the armchair beside her when I noticed the shadow beneath the door frame cut off.
The police officer assigned to guard us, Officer Ramirez, had stepped away five minutes earlier to take a phone call.
The door handle turned slowly, silently.
I stood up instantly, grabbing a heavy brass desk lamp from the bedside table, my knuckles white.
The door swung open, and a tall man in a nurse's scrub uniform stepped inside. But he wasn't a nurse. His hands were covered in dark leather gloves, and he carried a heavy glass syringe in his right hand.
"Who the hell are you?" I demanded, stepping between him and Ellie’s bed.
The man didn't answer. He lunged forward, bringing the needle toward my neck!
Instinct took over. I swung the brass lamp with all the force of an industrial construction worker. The metal base smashed directly into his jaw with a sickening CRACK!
The man stumbled back, roaring in pain, dropping the syringe onto the floor. I tackled him into the hallway, slamming him against the concrete wall just as Officer Ramirez came running down the corridor, weapon drawn.
"Freeze! On the ground!" Ramirez screamed.
We wrestled the intruder to the floor, pinning his arms behind his back.
When the detectives searched the man's pockets, they found a slip of paper with Ellie’s room number and a bank transfer receipt for fifty thousand dollars—paid from an offshore account linked to Grace's remaining hidden assets.
Grace had tried to finish what she started from behind bars, attempting to kill Ellie and terminate the pregnancy to eliminate the primary witness against her.
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When Detective Miller brought me the news in the hallway, I looked him dead in the eye.
"Put her away," I whispered, my voice trembling with unstoppable fury. "Put her in a cage, and throw away the key."
