Chapter 5 - The Battle for Leo
While the legal hammer fell upon Evelyn, a different kind of war was being fought three miles away at Saint Jude's Children's Hospital.
I sat in a wheelchair parked beside Incubator 12 in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Little Leo was so tiny he could fit in the palm of Julian’s hand. Translucent tubes were hooked up to his nose and chest, a machine gently pumping oxygen into his tiny, underdeveloped lungs. His skin was pale, covered in small sensors that beeped continuously on the overhead monitors.
"He had a good night, Mrs. Armitage," the chief neonatologist whispered, smiling gently as she adjusted Leo's IV line. "His blood oxygen levels stabilized after we administered the surfactant treatment. He’s a fighter, just like his mother."
Tears trickled down my cheeks as I reached through the circular rubber portal of the incubator, gently touching Leo’s tiny foot with my pinky finger. His small toes curled instinctively around my nail.
"Hi, sweet boy," I whispered softly. "Mommy’s here. Daddy’s here. You're safe now."
The door to the NICU creaked open. Julian walked in, carrying two warm cups of chamomile tea. He had stripped off his suit jacket, rolling up his shirt sleeves, looking exhausted but deeply relieved.
"How is our little warrior doing?" Julian asked, setting the tea down on a small table and kneeling beside my wheelchair.
"Dr. Aris says his oxygen levels are steady," I said, leaning my head against Julian’s shoulder. "He’s going to make it, Julian. I can feel it."
Julian kissed my hair, wrapping his warm arms around my waist. "He has to make it. He has your strength."
Suddenly, the glass windows of the NICU observation lobby rattled.
Outside in the hallway, a loud commotion broke out. Shouting voices echoed through the double doors, followed by the sound of security officers rushing down the corridor.
Julian immediately stood up, stepping in front of my wheelchair and Leo’s incubator. "Stay here, Clara."
He walked to the NICU door and pulled it open.
Standing in the hallway, held back by four heavy-set private security guards, was a middle-aged man in an expensive grey suit. It was Dr. Harold Vance—the head hospital administrator and the younger brother of Marcus Vance, Julian’s legal counsel.
"Let me speak to Julian!" Dr. Vance shouted, his face flushed and sweating profusely. "Julian! Please! You have to listen to me!"
Julian walked out into the corridor, his face darkening. "Dr. Vance. Why are you creating a disturbance outside my son's ICU room?"
Dr. Vance fell to his knees right there on the hospital floor, ignoring the nurses and staff staring at him in shock.
"Julian... my brother Marcus told me what happened at the boardroom this morning," Dr. Vance whimpered, his hands shaking violently. "Evelyn... Evelyn called me two days ago, right after Clara was admitted!"
Julian’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "What are you talking about?"
"She offered me two million dollars!" Dr. Vance confessed, tears streaming down his face. "She wanted me to falsify Clara’s medical records! She wanted me to alter the surgical report to state that the fetus was already dead before she arrived at the hospital! She wanted to prove in court that the fall didn't cause the loss of the baby!"
I gasped from inside the room, covering my mouth in pure horror.
Even after pushing me down the stairs, Evelyn had tried to tamper with my medical records while my baby was dying in surgery—all to save her own skin!
"Did you take her money, Harold?" Julian asked, his voice deathly quiet.
"No! I swear to God I didn't!" Dr. Vance cried out, pulling a flash drive from his coat pocket and holding it up with trembling hands. "I recorded the phone call! I refused her offer, but she threatened to have me fired from the hospital board! I was terrified! Here—take the recording! Take everything! Just please... don't destroy my family like you destroyed Evelyn!"
Julian looked down at the pathetic man kneeling on the floor. He slowly reached out, took the flash drive from Vance’s hand, and tossed it to his chief security detail.
"You kept quiet for two days while my son was on life support, Harold," Julian said, his voice ringing with cold disdain. "You didn't take her money, but your cowardice made you complicit."
"Julian, please—"
"You are fired from this hospital," Julian said coldly. "Your medical license will be revoked by midnight. Be thankful I don't put you in the same prison cell as my mother."
Julian turned back into the NICU, slamming the heavy glass door shut behind him, cutting off Dr. Vance’s hysterical pleas.
He walked back over to my side, kneeling beside my wheelchair again. I was shaking, tears pouring down my face as I looked at tiny Leo in his glass box.
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"She tried to erase him, Julian," I sobbed, clutching his face in my hands. "She tried to act like he never existed..."
"She failed, Clara," Julian said softly, wiping my tears with his thumbs, his eyes shining with absolute devotion. "She failed because our love is stronger than her evil. Leo is here. You are here. And nobody... nobody will ever touch this family again."
