Chapter 10 - THE MAN BEHIND THE NURSERY GLASSPolice sealed the maternity floor.
Dr. Lowell confirmed the baby had been delivered and transferred to intensive care, but she refused to discuss the infant’s condition in the open corridor while the hospital network remained compromised.
Cassidy was unconscious but stable enough to survive transport once doctors cleared her.
Thomas held Lydia’s hand as officers searched every room.
Grant was taken into custody.
He admitted assaulting Cassidy, participating in the forged land deal, and allowing Mercer access to the family. He denied knowing who altered the paternity report.
“I thought Wade was Lydia’s father,” he said.
“So did Cassidy,” Thomas replied.
Grant looked confused.
“She told me the test proved it.”
The report had been arranged through Frontier Meridian.
No independent test existed.
Deputy Mercer remained missing.
His cruiser’s blood evidence showed he had been injured, but not whether Grant, Paul Monroe, or another conspirator caused it.
Frontier Meridian’s attorneys filed an emergency federal action claiming the ranch sale remained valid.
The deed was frozen but not canceled.
Nothing was resolved.
Nurse Hannah escorted Thomas and Lydia toward Cassidy’s recovery room.
As they passed the neonatal unit, Lydia stopped.
A man stood beyond the glass wearing hospital scrubs and a surgical mask. He faced a newborn bassinet beneath the dim lights.
“Papa,” Lydia whispered.
Thomas followed her stare.
The man lowered his mask.
Wade Mercer.
He was pale, with dried blood along his temple. One hand rested against the bassinet.
Police alarms erupted.
Mercer looked directly at Lydia through the glass.
He raised his empty hands, not in surrender, but as though begging her to understand.
Then he pointed toward another man inside the nursery.
Paul Monroe stepped from behind a medical cabinet carrying a sealed specimen bag.
Inside were the stolen prenatal samples.
Mercer shouted through the glass, but the soundproof wall swallowed his words.
Paul lifted a pistol toward him.
Thomas pulled Lydia behind him.
Officers raced for the nursery entrance.
The door would not open.
A message appeared on the security panel:
BIOLOGICAL PARENT AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
Grant was under arrest downstairs.
Mercer pressed his palm against the scanner.
Access denied.
Paul smiled.
He placed his hand against it.
The door unlocked.
Thomas stared.
The hospital system recognized Paul Monroe as the baby’s biological father.
Inside the recovery room behind them, Cassidy’s monitor suddenly accelerated.
Her eyes opened.
She tore at the oxygen mask and whispered one name.
“Paul.”
Thomas turned toward his daughter.
Cassidy looked terrified.
“He was the man before Wade.”
The nursery lights went dark.
A newborn began crying behind the sealed glass.
Then another infant answered from somewhere deeper inside the unit.
Lydia gripped Thomas’s coat.
“Papa… Mommy only had one baby.”
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To be continued...
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