Chapter 8 - The Turning Point
"Noah!" Tears streamed down my face as I reached into the crib and gently cupped his warm cheeks. "Oh God, Noah! You're okay! Mommy's here!"
Dr. Morgan rushed into the room, immediately checking Noah’s vitals with her stethoscope. She looked up at me with a breathless, brilliant smile. "His oxygen levels are normal! His pupillary response is sharp. The toxin has completely flushed out of his system!"
Daniel, bleeding slightly from a cut on his lip where Gregory had struck him, knelt beside me. He wrapped his arms around both of us, resting his forehead against mine as Noah reached out his little hand and grabbed Daniel's pinky finger.
"I'm so sorry, Laura," Daniel whispered, tears streaming freely down his face. "I promise you, I will never doubt us again. I will never put anything before this family."
I looked into my husband's eyes and saw the man I had married—the man who had just thrown himself into danger without hesitation to save our child. I gripped his hand tightly. "We're going to get through this. Together."
While the paramedics attended to Noah, Detective Vance dragged Gregory out into the hallway. "You're facing attempted murder, conspiracy, and treason against medical safety, Gregory," Vance said coldly. "Your only chance at avoiding spending the rest of your life in maximum security is to tell me everything about Richard Miller right now."
Gregory, broken and terrified, spat blood onto the floor and caved. "It was Richard!" he sobbed. "He offered me one hundred thousand dollars! He gave me the paralytic drug and told me to mix it into Sophie's formula! He wanted the mother blamed so he could take the trust fund! I messed up the labels in the dark! I swapped them by mistake!"
"And the syringe tonight?" Vance demanded.
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"Richard called me twenty minutes ago!" Gregory confessed, shaking uncontrollably. "He said if I didn't finish off the baby in Room 410 before the police linked the chemical markers, he'd make sure my own family disappeared! He triggered the fire alarm to give me cover!"
Vance turned to his partner. "Put out a city-wide APB on Richard Miller. Seal the airport, the train stations, and the harbor. He's not leaving this city."
