The doctor looked from the file to me.
“I can only give general information.
The patient arrived with severe pregnancy-related complications affecting her blood pressure and heart rhythm.
The baby is also showing distress.
We are performing an emergency delivery while stabilizing her.”
“Will she live?”
“We are doing everything we can.”
That was the kind of sentence people used when truth had become too dangerous to say aloud.
The doors closed again.
I moved toward them.
A hospital security officer appeared at the end of the corridor.
Royce took one step forward, ready to intercept him.
I lifted a hand.
“Stand down.”
Royce stared at me as though he had misheard.
“Boss—”
“This is her instruction.
We respect it.”
I sat in a plastic chair outside the maternity unit.
Yara remained standing.
Her anger had gone cold.
“You knew she might be pregnant,” she said.
“No.”
“You slept with her nine months ago and never considered it?”
“I considered a lot of things after I left.”
“Did you consider calling her?”
I said nothing.
Yara’s mouth curved without warmth.
“Then do not perform grief now.
You made your decision when there was no audience.”
She returned to the VIP lounge with Royce following at a distance.
I stayed beneath fluorescent lights that made everyone look exposed.
The encrypted phone in my pocket vibrated again and again.
Division heads.
My attorney.
Aurelio Salcedo.
A dock supervisor reporting that a shipment had been delayed.
I switched the phone off.
It was the first time I had done that since I was sixteen.
An hour passed.
Then another.
A nurse carried a clear belongings bag from the treatment area.
Inside were Brin’s shoes, a cheap silver bracelet, a set of apartment keys, and a cracked phone.
Clipped to the bag was a sealed envelope.
My name was written across it.
The silver-haired nurse sat beside me.
“She left instructions for this to be delivered under the same condition as the notice in her file,” she said.
My stomach turned.
“You told me that condition had not been met.”
“It has not.
Her condition remains critical, but she is alive.”
“Then why bring it?”
“Because the emergency team asked whether there was anyone who could identify the baby’s father.
I told them about the envelope.
They have asked the hospital’s legal department to review the instruction.”
I stared at Brin’s handwriting.
