Chapter 3 - THE DOCTOR HAD A SECRET TOO
I did not learn what happened in the parking garage until hours later.
At the time, there was only the operating room.
Bright lights.
Cold air.
Machines.
My daughter’s heartbeat.
Dr. Patel’s calm voice.
I remember staring at the ceiling and thinking how strange it was that life could narrow so completely.
Somewhere outside those doors, my husband’s life was collapsing.
Inside, all I cared about was whether my baby would cry.
She did.
At 8:26 a.m., a furious little scream filled the room.
I started sobbing.
“That’s your daughter,” Dr. Patel said.
They lifted her just high enough for me to see.
Tiny.
Pink.
Angry.
Alive.
“Oh my God.”
My entire body shook.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s doing well.”
I cried harder.
For nine months, Flynn and I had argued about names.
He wanted Victoria because he said it sounded “appropriate.”
I had always wanted Rose, after my mother.
The night before, I had told myself that if my daughter and I survived, I would never again let Flynn make a decision for us.
“Rose,” I whispered.
The nurse leaned closer.
“What?”
“Her name is Rose.”
And just like that, my daughter became mine in a way no trust document could explain.
When I woke in recovery, Arthur was beside me.
His eyes were red.
“She’s perfect.”
“Where is she?”
“NICU is checking her because she came early, but she’s stable.”
I closed my eyes.
“And Flynn?”
Arthur’s face changed.
“Alive.”
Despite everything, I laughed weakly.
“Not what I meant.”
“I know.”
He leaned closer.
“He’s in custody.”
The relief was physical.
“What about Vance?”
“That’s complicated.”
Everything apparently was.
Dr. Julian Vance had not simply agreed to Flynn’s offer.
Not exactly.
According to Arthur, Vance had received the first approach from Flynn three days earlier.
Flynn had hinted that he wanted “an unfortunate outcome.”
Vance initially thought it was a grotesque joke.
Then Flynn became explicit.
Vance did something unexpected.
He contacted hospital legal counsel.
Not police.
Hospital counsel advised him to preserve evidence and immediately contacted law enforcement.
The conversation I overheard had been partly genuine and partly Vance trying to get Flynn to state the amount and intent clearly.
I stared at Arthur.
“So Vance was never going to hurt me?”
“No.”
My whole body went weak.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“The investigators were afraid Flynn would notice a change in your behavior.”
“I already knew!”
“They didn’t know that until your recording arrived.”
It was surreal.
The doctor I thought had agreed to murder me had actually been collecting evidence.
“That’s why he asked ‘five hundred thousand?’”
“Apparently.”
I remembered the quiet way he had repeated the number.
At the time it sounded like negotiation.
It had been confirmation.
“Is he in trouble?”
Arthur shrugged.
“The hospital is reviewing everything because they don’t love how long he let the conversation continue without warning you.”
“Neither do I.”
But he had also helped save us.
Both things could be true.
Then Detective Ruiz entered.
He asked whether I was strong enough to hear an update.
“Yes.”
Flynn had handed Vance a cashier’s check for $250,000 in the parking garage.
Vance was wearing a recording device.
Flynn repeated the plan.
He told him to make my death appear connected to my high-risk pregnancy.
No graphic medical instructions.
Just intent.
Clear enough that nobody could call it a joke.
And then Flynn added something investigators had not expected.
“After the baby is born, make sure she goes to me. Mabel’s brother cannot get custody.”
I looked at Arthur.
His jaw tightened.
Flynn wanted Rose.
Not because he loved her.
Because he thought she might control the trust.
“He knew something about the child provisions,” Rachel said when she joined us later.
“Not enough.”
“No.”
But enough to realize Rose mattered financially.
Then came another surprise.
Flynn had transferred the $250,000 from an account belonging to a company I had never heard of.
FVS Design Holdings.
Rachel searched the records.
The company had been formed eleven months earlier.
Owner:
Selina Vargas.
Five months pregnant Selina.
My husband’s mistress.
I closed my eyes.
“So she helped pay him?”
“Possibly.”
Rachel corrected herself.
“Or he used her company.”
“Does she know?”
“We don’t know.”
That question was answered that afternoon.
At 3:10 p.m., a woman tried to enter my recovery floor.
Security stopped her.
She demanded to see Flynn.
Then me.
Selina.
Arthur looked ready to throw her into traffic.
I surprised everyone.
“Let her in.”
“Mabel.”
“I want to hear what she says.”
“You just had surgery.”
“I also just survived a murder plot.”
That ended the argument.
Selina entered ten minutes later.
She was visibly pregnant.
Five months.
Long dark hair.
Designer coat.
No makeup.
And terrified.
She looked at me.
Then began crying.
I hated her immediately.
Then hated myself for caring that she was crying.
“Mabel.”
“Do not hug me.”
She stopped.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Good.”
Arthur stood near the wall.
Detective Ruiz remained outside.
Selina looked at my hospital bed.
“I didn’t know.”
“That Flynn was married?”
Her face tightened.
“I knew that.”
“Then choose your next sentence carefully.”
“I didn’t know he wanted to hurt you.”
I watched her.
She looked genuinely horrified.
That did not make her innocent.
But it mattered.
“When did you find out?”
“This morning.”
“How?”
“The police came to my office.”
“FVS Design Holdings?”
She nodded.
“It’s mine.”
“Did you give Flynn $250,000?”
Her face went blank.
“What?”
“He paid Dr. Vance from your account.”
“No.”
“Then how did he get it?”
Selina sat down hard.
“He has access.”
“Why?”
“We were buying property together.”
Of course they were.
Different affair.
Same fantasy.
“Did you know I was supposed to die?”
“No.”
“Did you know he expected to inherit my company?”
Selina looked away.
There it was.
“What did he tell you?”
She swallowed.
“He said you were very sick.”
I almost laughed.
“He said your doctors had warned him you might not survive delivery.”
Arthur cursed under his breath.
Selina continued.
“He said if anything happened, he would inherit control of your real-estate company and use part of it to start his own architecture firm.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
That was the first honest thing she said.
I looked at her stomach.
“Is the baby his?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
She stared at me.
“Yes.”
I believed her.
Flynn had built two futures simultaneously.
One with me as the source of money.
One with Selina as the reward afterward.
Then Rachel asked a question.
“Selina, did Flynn ask you to sign anything recently?”
Selina frowned.
“Business documents.”
“What kind?”
“A power of attorney for FVS while I’m pregnant.”
Rachel and I looked at each other.
“When?”
“Last week.”
“Did you sign?”
“Yes.”
Rachel’s expression sharpened.
“Do you have a copy?”
Selina opened her phone.
Flynn had not merely gained access to her company.
The power of attorney gave him broad authority over several accounts.
Including the one holding $250,000.
Selina went pale.
“He stole from me.”
I stared at her.
“Welcome to the club.”
She looked at me, shocked.
Then, unbelievably, we both laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because sometimes betrayal becomes so excessive that reality turns absurd.
Selina covered her face.
“I’m an idiot.”
“No.”
Arthur looked at me.
I corrected myself.
“You made terrible choices.”
Selina nodded through tears.
“I did.”
“Sleeping with my husband was one of them.”
“Yes.”
“But his attempt to kill me is his choice.”
“Yes.”
I leaned back.
My abdomen hurt.
My heart hurt more.
“Are you willing to cooperate with police?”
“Yes.”
“No protecting him?”
Her expression changed.
“He used money meant for my child to pay someone to kill you.”
That was when I realized Flynn had miscalculated not only me.
He had miscalculated every woman around him.
And now two pregnant women he had lied to were alive.
Talking.
Sharing documents.
Comparing stories.
Flynn’s fantasy of controlling both of us lasted less than one day.
But his true plan was even bigger.
Because on Selina’s phone, investigators found a message Flynn had sent four days earlier.
Once Mabel is gone, don’t announce our baby yet. We need the board to believe Rose is my only priority until I control Mercer Commercial.
Selina stared at the message.
“He was going to hide our child?”
I said nothing.
She kept reading.
Then her face turned white.
Another message.
Not to Selina.
Forwarded accidentally from Flynn’s attorney.
It contained a draft guardianship petition.
If I died, Flynn intended to argue that Arthur was financially unfit to manage Rose’s trust.
Attached was a private investigative report.
On Arthur.
His debts.
His old divorce.
His business records.
Everything.
Arthur’s face hardened.
“He was preparing to take my niece.”
Rachel kept scrolling.
Then she found the final page.
A proposed board resolution.
If Flynn became Rose’s legal guardian, he planned to demand voting authority over the trust shares held for her.
He had no right to do that.
But he intended to litigate until the board surrendered temporary control.
This had never been merely an affair.
It was a hostile takeover hidden inside a marriage.
May you like
And Flynn had been preparing it for almost a year.
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