Chapter 7 - A Night in the Dark
The next day brought a sudden, fierce Chicago blizzard. Heavy white snow slammed against the tall glass windows of the Lake Forest estate, howling through the surrounding woods.
Inside, the house felt strangely warm, but the tension remained thick. Ethan had spent the entire morning in his study executing the legal warfare he had planned the night before. Victoria had been formally arrested at her high-rise apartment at 8:00 AM, and news of the internal corporate shakeup was already sending ripples through the financial news networks.
At 3:00 PM, I was sitting on the rug in the nursery, playing with Rose as she giggled at a soft plush bear.
Suddenly, Rose's giggles stopped. Her face flushed a deep, unnatural red, and her tiny body began to shiver violently.
I immediately reached out and touched her forehead. My heart dropped into my stomach.
She was burning hot.
"Rose? Baby?" I gasped, pulling her into my arms. I quickly pulled out her digital thermometer and placed it under her armpit.
The device beeped three seconds later.
103.8°F.
"Oh God," I panicked, my nurse instincts instantly taking over. A high fever in a infant under three months was a medical emergency. "Ethan! Ethan!"
I didn't care about my pride. I didn't care about keeping my distance. I ran out of the nursery holding my burning baby, my bare feet slapping against the hardwood floor as I sprinted down the hallway.
Ethan burst out of his study at the sound of my screams, his face pale with alarm. "Claire! What’s wrong?"
"It’s Rose! She has a 103.8 fever!" I sobbed, holding her squirming, crying body out to him. "She’s shivering! We need to get her to a pediatric emergency room right now!"
Ethan didn't hesitate for a single second. He didn't ask questions. He reached out and snatched his heavy winter coat off the hall rack, grabbing Rose's warm blanket with his other hand.
"Henderson! Get the armored Suburban brought to the front door right now!" Ethan bellowed into the house.
"Sir, the roads are blocked by the blizzard!" Henderson warned, running into the foyer. "The local sheriff issued a travel ban!"
"I don't give a damn about a travel ban!" Ethan roared, grabbing the car keys himself. "Open the garage doors!"
Within ninety seconds, we were inside the heavy four-wheel-drive Suburban. Ethan didn't rely on his security team; he took the steering wheel himself. He slammed his foot onto the accelerator, sending the heavy vehicle plowing through the six-inch snowdrifts covering the long driveway, tearing out onto the main road toward Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The drive was nightmare. Visibility was nearly zero, the wind howling around the chassis as snow blanketed the windshield.
In the backseat, I held Rose tightly, tears streaming down my face as I tried to keep her cool with a damp cloth from my pocket. She was crying softly, her tiny chest heaving with shallow breaths.
"Stay with me, Rose... please, baby, stay with mommy," I begged, rocking her.
Ethan looked back in the rearview mirror, his hands gripping the leather steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned stark white.
"Hold on, Claire! Just hold on!" Ethan yelled over the roar of the engine, running a red light as he plowed through the empty, snow-covered city streets.
For twenty terrifying minutes, the billionaire who controlled billions drove like a madman through a life-threatening storm, his eyes fixed on the road, his heart beating entirely for the tiny girl in the backseat.
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When we finally skidded into the emergency bay of Northwestern Memorial, Ethan slammed the car into park, jumped out into the freezing wind, and tore the rear door open.
He didn't wait for me to step down. He gathered both me and Rose into his massive, warm arms, shielding us from the biting snow with his own body as he kicked open the automatic emergency room doors, shouting for doctors at the top of his lungs.
