Chapter 3 - The Call That Went Unanswered
The emergency began shortly after midnight.
Emily woke with severe pain and immediately called Mark.
His phone went directly to voicemail.
She called again.
Then again.
On the fourth attempt, Hannah answered her own phone.
“I need you,” Emily whispered.
Hannah arrived within fifteen minutes and found her sister sitting near the front door with a hospital bag beside her.
Emily was pale but conscious. She kept apologizing for waking Hannah.
“Stop apologizing,” Hannah said. “We’re going now.”
During the drive, Emily called Mark six more times.
Every call went unanswered.
At the investor conference, Mark had placed his phone in the hotel safe.
Richard had told everyone that distractions would not be tolerated during the final negotiations.
Mark had briefly considered leaving the phone on.
Then he remembered his father’s warning.
A leader cannot run out of an important meeting every time his family becomes emotional.
Mark wanted to be seen as a leader.
So he turned the phone off.
At the hospital, the doctors moved quickly. The triplets’ heart rates were unstable, and Emily’s condition was worsening.
A surgeon placed emergency consent forms in front of her.
Emily’s hand shook as she signed.
“Is your husband coming?” the surgeon asked.
She looked at the phone lying silently on the blanket.
“No,” she answered.
It was the first time she had stopped protecting him.
Hannah remained beside her until the nurses pushed the bed toward surgery.
Emily grabbed her sister’s wrist.
“If something happens to me, don’t let Mark’s family raise them.”
“Nothing is going to happen to you.”
“Promise me.”
Hannah swallowed her fear.
“I promise.”
May you like
Emily was taken through the operating-room doors.
The chair beside Hannah remained empty.
