Chapter 5 - The Nurse Without a Name
Rebecca heard the door click behind her.
She assumed Nora had returned.
Emma was sleeping, her face pale beneath the oxygen mask. The newly installed equipment had been inspected three times, yet Rebecca still watched every movement of the clear tubing.
A gloved hand touched her shoulder.
“Mrs. Vale, you need to step outside.”
The nurse wore blue scrubs, a disposable cap, and a mask.
Rebecca frowned.
“Who are you?”
“Respiratory care.”
“Nora said no one enters without an officer.”
The nurse glanced toward the empty chair beside the door.
The police officer assigned to the room was gone.
Rebecca stood.
“Show me your badge.”
The nurse moved too quickly.
She seized Rebecca’s arm and drove a syringe toward her neck.
Rebecca twisted aside. The needle scraped her skin instead of entering.
She grabbed the nurse’s wrist.
The woman slammed Rebecca against the wall.
Emma stirred.
“Mommy?”
Rebecca kicked the attacker’s knee.
The nurse staggered.
The syringe fell beneath the bed.
Rebecca reached for the emergency button, but the woman caught her hair and dragged her backward.
“You should have accepted the first diagnosis,” the attacker hissed.
Rebecca clawed at her mask.
The elastic snapped.
The face beneath it was unfamiliar, but a smooth scar ran from the woman’s mouth to her left ear.
No mouth, Emma had said.
The quiet lady had no mouth.
Emma began screaming.
The attacker turned toward the bed.
Rebecca threw herself onto the woman’s back.
They crashed into the IV stand.
The pole struck the window.
Nora and Daniel appeared in the corridor.
The attacker pulled a small black device from her pocket and pressed a button.
Every alarm in the room activated at once.
The doors locked automatically.
Smoke poured from a vent near the ceiling.
Daniel rammed his shoulder against the glass door.
Nora shouted instructions through the intercom, but static swallowed her voice.
The attacker reached for Emma’s oxygen controls.
Rebecca grabbed the fallen IV pole and swung it.
The metal struck the woman’s arm.
She cried out and dropped the device.
Rebecca struck again.
The woman fell against the bed rail.
Daniel shattered the door glass with a fire extinguisher and unlocked it from inside.
He pinned the attacker to the floor while Nora rushed to Emma.
Marcus arrived seconds later, soaked from the rain.
He saw Rebecca bleeding from the neck and nearly lost control.
“What happened?”
“The quiet lady,” Emma cried. “She came back.”
The attacker laughed against the floor.
Marcus looked at her.
“Who sent you?”
She turned her scarred face toward him.
“Your father sends everyone.”
Detective Ortiz arrived and searched the woman.
No identification.
No phone.
Only a silver pendant marked with the same circle-and-dots emblem found beneath the greenhouse.
Dr. Shaw examined Rebecca’s neck.
“The needle did not penetrate deeply,” he said. “We will test for exposure.”
Daniel hauled the attacker upright.
She looked at Emma.
“You were supposed to forget.”
Emma hid against Rebecca.
The woman smiled.
“But you remembered the singing.”
Rebecca froze.
“What singing?”
Emma pointed beneath the bed.
A faint melody played from somewhere near the floor.
Nora knelt and retrieved the attacker’s black device. The sound came from its speaker.
It was a children’s lullaby.
Emma began trembling violently.
Rebecca covered her ears.
“Turn it off.”
Nora pressed the button.
The music stopped.
The attacker’s expression became calm.
“Too late.”
Emma’s body stiffened.
Her eyes rolled upward.
She began convulsing.
Dr. Shaw shouted for medication.
As nurses surrounded the bed, Rebecca remembered hearing that same lullaby before.
Not in the hospital.
In an old home video recorded the night Emma was born.
Evelyn had stood beside the crib humming it.
On the video, newborn Emma had stopped crying instantly.
At the time, everyone had laughed.
Now Rebecca understood that the song was not meant to comfort her.
It was a trigger.
The attacker was taken downstairs.
Emma’s seizure ended after forty-seven seconds.
When she regained consciousness, she stared at Marcus.
“You are not my real daddy,” she whispered.
The words struck him harder than any blow.
Rebecca sat beside her.
“Why would you say that?”
Emma’s eyes remained fixed on Marcus.
“Grandpa showed me the box.”
“What box?”
“The one with babies inside.”
Then she closed her eyes.
Detective Ortiz received a call.
Her expression changed as she listened.
“What is it?” Marcus asked.
She lowered the phone.
“Your father’s car was found at a private airfield.”
“Was he there?”
“No.”
May you like
Ortiz paused.
“But we found Madison in the trunk.”
