Chapter 3 - TWO HEARTBEATS
Hannah woke to a ceiling she didn’t recognize and the sound of a machine breathing softly beside her.
Her abdomen burned.
Her mouth felt packed with sand.
The first word she managed was, “Babies?”
Dr. Kline appeared almost immediately.
“Both alive.”
Hannah burst into tears.
“Your son, Noah, is in the NICU on breathing support. Your daughter, Lily, is smaller but stable. They’re fighters.”
Hannah pressed a shaking hand to her face.
“Can I see them?”
“When your blood pressure settles.”
Then she remembered.
Dominic.
Her father.
Bradley.
The door opened, and a hospital attorney entered with a woman from security.
“Mrs. Mercer—”
“Not Mercer,” Hannah said automatically. “Bennett. Legally, still Bennett.”
The attorney paused. “Understood. Your husband attempted to access the NICU fifteen minutes ago.”
Hannah’s body went rigid.
“What?”
“He claimed parental authority and demanded the children be released to a private neonatal transport team.”
“Released where?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Hannah tried to sit up. Pain stabbed through her incision.
“No. No, he doesn’t take them anywhere.”
“He won’t,” said a voice from the doorway.
Dominic walked in carrying no flowers, only a thick folder.
The hospital attorney looked irritated. “Mr. Russo, visiting restrictions—”
“Hannah asked why I was here.”
“I did,” Hannah said.
Dominic placed the folder on her tray table.
Inside were copies of bank transfers, property filings, and a trust document bearing Hannah’s signature.
Only she had never signed it.
“What is this?”
“A transfer of your late mother’s waterfront property into a company controlled by Bradley and a woman named Britney Vale.”
“My mother didn’t own waterfront property.”
Dominic studied her.
“That’s what Bradley needed you to believe.”
Hannah turned pages faster, heart pounding.
At the bottom of the trust was a clause triggered by the live birth of her children.
Her twins.
Thirty-two million dollars in property and liquid assets transferred into a family trust the moment they were born.
And if Hannah died within thirty days of delivery, Bradley became temporary trustee.
Hannah stopped breathing.
Dominic lowered his voice.
“He didn’t just abandon you today.”
May you like
He tapped the forged signature.
“He was waiting for you to die.
