Chapter 4 - Dr. Hale Knew
I stared at him.
He stared back.
No Daniel.
No witness I could see.
The syringe in his hand contained clear liquid.
My phone continued recording beneath pillow.
“Don’t scream,” Hale said.
I almost laughed.
“You’re planning to kill me and you’re worried I’ll scream?”
His jaw tightened.
“I have not agreed to anything.”
“You discussed five hundred thousand dollars.”
“I listened.”
“You said you did something before.”
His face changed.
“Keep your voice down.”
“Rebecca?”
The name hit.
He looked toward sitting room.
Then back.
“You have no idea what happened to Rebecca.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
“Then get out.”
His hand tightened around syringe.
I looked at it.
“What is that?”
“A routine medication.”
“Put it down.”
“You are my patient.”
“Not anymore.”
I reached toward nurse call button.
Hale caught my wrist.
Hard.
Pain shot through bruised skin.
“Do not make this worse.”
I screamed.
Not because I expected help immediately.
Because the performance was over.
Hale released.
I slammed the emergency button.
He grabbed for my phone.
I pulled it free.
Screen glowed.
LIVE AUDIO SHARED.
Hale saw.
His face emptied.
“What did you do?”
“Everything you were afraid I’d do.”
Then Daniel burst through the door.
He had not gone downstairs.
He had been waiting in hallway.
“What happened?”
Hale snapped:
“She’s awake.”
Daniel looked at me.
Then at phone.
“You were recording?”
“Yes.”
He lunged.
I threw the water carafe.
Not at his head.
At the floor between us.
Glass shattered.
He stopped instinctively.
I moved toward far side of bed, one hand on my stomach.
“Stay away.”
Daniel’s expression became something I had seen only in fragments before.
Contempt without disguise.
“You stupid bitch.”
Hale said:
“Daniel, stop.”
“You shut up.”
Daniel came around bed.
I grabbed the steel tray beside me and pushed it hard into his chest when he reached.
He stumbled.
Then caught my shoulder.
I struck his jaw with my palm and the edge of the tray.
His lip split.
He swore.
Hale grabbed the syringe.
I saw movement.
I kicked the rolling stool into his path.
He collided with it and dropped syringe.
It hit floor.
I screamed:
“SECURITY!”
Daniel grabbed my gown at shoulder.
Then hospital door burst open.
Three security officers.
Lauren Brooks behind them.
And two Alexandria police officers.
“Hands where we can see them!”
Daniel froze.
Hale stepped backward.
One officer moved between me and both men.
Lauren ran to bed.
“Claire, are you hurt?”
“My baby.”
She checked monitor.
Heart rate fast.
Still there.
Still strong.
I started crying.
Not softly.
Daniel shouted:
“She’s unstable!”
One officer ordered:
“Sir, stop talking.”
Then Thomas Avery’s voice came from my phone.
The board chair.
“Claire?”
I grabbed it.
“I’m here.”
“We have the recording.”
“Everything?”
“From your message forward.”
Then Rebecca Sloan:
“Police have a duplicate.”
Daniel heard.
His confidence broke.
“No.”
Thomas continued:
“The board has suspended Daniel’s company authority effective immediately pending investigation.”
Daniel screamed:
“You can’t do that!”
Thomas:
“The board just did.”
Then Detective Miriam Cole entered.
She looked at the cash envelope on chair.
The fallen syringe.
Hale’s face.
Daniel’s split lip.
Then me.
“Mrs. Bennett, nobody touches anything until evidence team arrives.”
I nodded.
Daniel shouted again:
“This is a setup!”
I looked at him.
“No.”
Then finally said the words I had been holding since 10:09.
“You tried to buy my death.”
He stared.
I continued:
“And you were stupid enough to negotiate the price beside my bed.”
Police restrained him.
Dr. Hale said:
“I want a lawyer.”
Good.
Daniel said:
“She attacked me!”
Also good.
Everything documented.
No one needed my version alone anymore.
Then Lauren looked at fetal monitor.
“Claire, your contractions are starting.”
I stared.
“What?”
Another one tightened through abdomen.
Dr. Hale’s plan had failed.
Daniel’s plan had failed.
May you like
But my daughter had apparently decided she was done waiting.
And while police led my husband out of the room, I went into labor.
