Chapter 4 - room 417
“What are you doing here?” Claire asked.
Bianca closed the folder.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“You arranged this appointment.”
“Ethan arranged it.”
“Then where is he?”
“He changed his mind.”
Claire turned toward the exit.
Bianca stepped in front of her.
“You came all this way. You should at least hear what the doctor has to say.”
“I’m not discussing my child with you.”
Bianca’s eyes moved toward Claire’s stomach.
At twelve weeks, the pregnancy was not obvious beneath her coat.
“You still believe keeping this baby will bring Ethan back?”
“This has nothing to do with bringing him back.”
“Everything has to do with Ethan.”
“Not my child.”
Bianca lowered her voice.
“You don’t know the Vale family as well as you think.”
“And you do?”
“I know what happens when someone threatens their future.”
Claire looked at the folder.
“How did you get my records?”
Bianca handed it to a receptionist before Claire could take it.
“She is here for Room 417.”
The receptionist checked the screen.
“There is no appointment under Claire Bennett.”
Bianca leaned across the desk and whispered something.
The receptionist’s expression changed.
She called a supervisor.
Within minutes, Claire was taken upstairs.
The entire situation felt wrong, but Claire remained because she wanted answers.
Why had Ethan’s family program contacted her?
How did they know the name Noah?
Why had Bianca brought her medical records?
Room 417 was not a normal examination room.
It had no window and no visible medical equipment beyond a blood pressure monitor. A camera was mounted in the corridor outside, but there was none inside.
A nurse entered and asked Claire to sign a consent form.
Claire read it carefully.
The form authorized the hospital to review her pregnancy for eligibility in a private support program.
It did not authorize treatment.
Claire signed only after crossing out several broad privacy clauses.
The nurse appeared annoyed.
“You can wait here.”
“Where is the doctor?”
“She will be with you soon.”
Claire waited twenty minutes.
Then forty.
She called Ethan again.
Still blocked.
She sent Lena her location.
At last, Bianca entered alone.
“Where is the doctor?” Claire asked.
“There isn’t one.”
Claire stood.
“What?”
“I needed proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That you would come when you thought Ethan wanted you.”
“You used a hospital to lure me here?”
“I used a foundation program Ethan’s father created.”
Bianca placed a document on the table.
It was a copy of a trust agreement.
Claire recognized the Vale family seal at the top.
“What is this?”
“The reason your baby can never become part of Ethan’s life.”
Claire did not touch the document.
Bianca opened it to a highlighted section.
Upon the birth of the first legally recognized child of Ethan Alexander Vale, control of thirty-one percent of Vale Global voting shares shall be transferred into a protected family trust for the benefit of that child.
Claire read the paragraph again.
“I don’t want the company.”
“It doesn’t matter what you want.”
“Then what do you want?”
“To prevent a child born outside an approved marriage from controlling the Vale family.”
“My baby is not a business problem.”
“To you, perhaps.”
Claire moved toward the door.
It would not open.
Bianca had locked it from the outside control panel when she entered.
“Open the door.”
“Sign the confidentiality agreement.”
Bianca placed another document beside the trust.
“It confirms Ethan is not the father and prevents you from making any future claim.”
“I will never sign that.”
“Then you may spend the rest of your pregnancy wondering what this family is capable of.”
Claire pressed the call button beside the bed.
Nothing happened.
The light did not turn on.
Bianca smiled.
Claire’s fear sharpened into anger.
“You changed my contact information.”
“I corrected it.”
“You sent the email.”
“Ethan made his choice.”
“No. You made it for him.”
Bianca’s smile disappeared.
“You were supposed to leave quietly.”
“And because I didn’t, you brought me here?”
“I brought you here to give you one final opportunity.”
Claire picked up the trust document.
She saw a signature near the bottom.
Malcolm Vale.
The date beside it was only three months old.
But Malcolm had been declared dead almost three years earlier.
Claire looked up.
“This document was updated recently.”
Bianca grabbed it from her.
“You don’t understand what you’re reading.”
“Is Ethan’s father alive?”
“Stop asking questions.”
“You used his signature to access my records.”
Bianca moved closer.
“Sign the agreement.”
“No.”
Claire reached for her phone.
Bianca knocked it from her hand.
It slid beneath the bed.
Claire bent to retrieve it.
A wave of pain suddenly tightened across her abdomen.
She gripped the side of the bed.
Bianca’s expression flickered.
“What is it?”
“Get a doctor.”
“You’re pretending.”
“Open the door.”
Claire pressed the call button again.
Still nothing.
The pain grew stronger.
Bianca backed toward the exit.
“I didn’t touch you.”
“You locked me in here.”
“I only wanted you to sign.”
“Get someone.”
Bianca unlocked the door.
For one hopeful second, Claire thought she was going for help.
Instead, Bianca stepped into the corridor and closed the door behind her.
Claire pounded against it.
“Bianca!”
No answer came.
The room began to spin.
Claire lowered herself to the floor and reached under the bed for her phone. Her fingers touched it, but the screen had cracked.
She pressed the emergency shortcut.
A call connected.
Claire could not see the number.
“Please,” she whispered. “I’m in Room 417.”
The line went silent.
Outside, the hospital camera recorded Bianca walking into the records office.
It recorded her using a stolen access card.
It recorded her changing Claire’s emergency contact information.
It also recorded another person waiting at the far end of the corridor.
A tall man wearing a dark overcoat.
When Bianca approached him, he handed her a small envelope.
May you like
Then he raised one hand.
On his finger was the gold signet ring of Malcolm Vale.
