Three days passed. Joanna’s physical strength began to return, and under Dr. Wright’s strict orders, she remained in the VIP suite, sheltered from the outside world. The doctor visited her every few hours, bringing her nutritious meals, checking on the baby, and showing her the boundless affection of a grandfather who had been starved of family for a quarter of a century.
He had already hired a top-tier private intelligence firm to track Logan’s paper trail from the moment he left the diner where Joanna worked.
It was just past midnight on Friday evening. The hospital was deadly quiet. Joanna had just finished nursing the baby and had placed him in the bassinet beside her bed. The snow outside was falling heavily now, coating the windowpane in a thick sheet of frost.
Joanna lay down, closing her eyes, finally feeling a sense of safety she hadn’t felt in seven months. With Dr. Wright by her side, she wasn’t alone anymore.
Suddenly, the heavy wooden door to her private suite creaked open.
Joanna opened her eyes, expecting to see Dr. Wright coming in for his late-night check-in. “Doctor?” she whispered into the dim light.
No one answered.
A tall figure stepped out of the shadows of the entryway and into the soft light of the room. The intruder was wearing a heavy, snow-dusted coat, a dark beanie pulled low over his forehead, and a worn backpack slung over one shoulder. He was breathing heavily, his hands trembling violently.
When he pulled off his beanie, Joanna’s breath caught completely in her throat. Her heart stopped beating.
It was Logan.
He looked haggard, his face pale and gaunt, with dark circles bruising the skin under his gray eyes. He looked like a man who had been running through hell.
“Joanna,” Logan whispered, his voice cracking with a terrifying mix of desperation and raw emotion.
Joanna sat up instantly, a wave of shock, anger, and terror washing over her. “Logan? What… what are you doing here? How did you find me? Get out! Get out before I call security!”
“Joanna, please, just listen to me,” Logan begged, taking a step closer to the bed, his hands raised in surrender. Tears began to stream down his face. “I didn’t abandon you because I didn’t love you. I swear to God, I love you more than my own life.”
“You left me!” she screamed in a harsh whisper, trying not to wake the baby, though her voice vibrated with pure rage. “You walked out the night I told you about our son!”
“Because I had to!” Logan choked out, collapsing to his knees by the side of her bed, burying his face in the sheets. “I found out who I am, Joanna. I found out who my father is. I found out what he does.”
Joanna froze. “What are you talking about?”
Logan looked up, his gray eyes wild with a terror that shook Joanna to her very core.
“My father isn’t just a doctor, Joanna. Dr. Robert Wright… the man who runs this hospital… he isn’t who you think he is,” Logan whispered, his voice trembling so hard his teeth clicked. “I found his records. I found out why my mother hid me from him. He isn’t saving babies, Joanna. He’s… he’s choosing them.”
Before Logan could finish his sentence, the heavy door to the suite swung open completely, banging loudly against the wall.
Standing in the doorway, framed by the bright, harsh light of the hallway, was Dr. Robert Wright.
But the warm, grieving grandfather from the past three days was gone. In his place stood a man with eyes as cold as the winter storm outside, holding a medical syringe filled with a clear, unknown fluid, flanked by two towering, unsmiling hospital security guards.
“I told you to run further away, Christopher,” Dr. Wright said, his voice entirely devoid of human emotion. “You should have never come back for the child.”
Logan leaped to his feet, throwing himself protectively in front of Joanna and the bassinet. “I won’t let you take him!” Logan roared.
Dr. Wright stepped into the room, a sinister, calculating smile spreading across his face as the security guards locked the door behind them. “My dear boy, you don’t have a choice. It runs in the family.”
Joanna clutched her baby to her chest as the room dissolved into absolute terror, the horrifying truth of the Wright bloodline finally staring her right in the face.
