Chapter 4 - The Breach
The deadbolt turned with a heavy, oiled click.
Leah gripped the IV pole with both hands, her muscles trembling, her breath coming in shallow gasps. She positioned herself just out of the doorway’s immediate arc, her eyes fixed on the gap as the door slowly swung inward.
“I know someone is in here,” a gruff male voice growled. A security guard in a dark navy uniform stepped into the threshold, his flashlight cutting through the dim light of the supply room.
Before he could sweep the beam toward the back shelves, Leah swung the heavy steel IV pole in a vicious arc, catching him squarely across the collarbone.
The guard grunted, stumbling backward into the doorframe.
“Hey! What the—?”
Leah didn't hesitate. She lunged forward, kicking the guard’s knee outward with all the remaining strength in her body. He crashed to the floor, his flashlight rolling across the linoleum and coming to a rest against a box of bandages.
Doreen appeared behind him in the doorway, her immaculate platinum coiffure slightly ruffled, her eyes wide with aristocratic shock.
“Leah,” Doreen hissed, stepping over the groaning guard. “Have you completely lost your mind? Put that ridiculous metal rod down before you hurt yourself and the child.”
Leah stood between the doorway and the bassinet, her chest heaving, her eyes burning with an incandescent rage. “Stay away from him, Doreen.”
“You are unstable,” Doreen said, her voice dropping into that smooth, venomous cadence she used when managing difficult board members. “You’ve attacked hospital staff, you’re hallucinating threats, and you’re endangering your own son. Security will be dragging you to the psychiatric ward in thirty seconds, and that child will be placed in safe, competent hands. You brought this on yourself the moment you married into our family.”
“I’m not leaving without my son,” Leah said, her voice dropping to a low, dangerous whisper that made even Doreen step back a half-inch. “And if you or your lawyers ever come near us again, I won't use an IV pole next time.”
Doreen’s lips thinned into a hard, white line. She raised her hand to signal two more guards running down the corridor. “Subdue her. Sedate her if you have to.”
As the guards lunged forward into the room, a deafening crash echoed from the double doors at the end of the maternity ward.
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“Get away from my wife!”
Nathan’s voice roared down the hallway like an approaching locomotive. He didn't slow down as he reached the supply room; he plowed straight into the two advancing guards, sending all three of them crashing into the drywall with the ferocious momentum of a man who had finally broken his chains.
