She stopped when she saw them—the soaked child, the exhausted mother being rushed past, the man she was supposed to marry kneeling beside strangers.
Her face hardened with disgust.
“Get them out of here,” she said loudly. “This is a hospital, not a shelter. They’re probably scammers.”
Richard didn’t even look at her.
That was enough.
Something dark flickered in Victoria’s eyes.
Without another word, she stepped aside, pulling out her phone as she moved into a shadowed hallway. Her voice dropped to a whisper, cold and deliberate as she spoke to someone on the other end.
A slow, unsettling smile spread across her face.
No one noticed.
But the air shifted.
Because something terrible had just been set in motion.
The next morning, the room felt peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Emily lay weak but stable, her newborn daughter resting nearby, while the little girl—Sophie—sat quietly beside her, holding her hand.
For the first time in what must have felt like forever, they were safe.
Then—
The doors opened.
Hard.
Three officials walked in, their expressions stiff, their uniforms crisp.
“Emily Carter?” one of them asked.
Her heart sank.
“Yes…?”