The Call from St. Matthew's
Chapter 01 - The Call from St. Matthew's
Grace Bennett was eight months pregnant when a black SUV appeared in her rearview mirror and began following her through the rain. At first, she told herself it was nothing. Then the vehicle moved closer, flashed its headlights, and forced her toward the guardrail. Grace slammed on the brakes, but the road had already turned slick. Her car spun across two lanes and struck a concrete barrier hard enough to shatter the windshield.
Earlier that afternoon, Grace had called Ethan after finding an unfamiliar withdrawal notice in their home office. He promised they would discuss it after his meeting, but Vanessa had answered his phone and said he was unavailable. Grace had left the house unsettled, carrying a copy of the notice in her purse. Now that purse was missing from the hospital inventory.
When Grace opened her eyes, she was lying beneath the white lights of St. Matthew's Hospital. A heart monitor beeped beside her, and a nurse kept one hand on Grace's wrist while another doctor checked the baby's heartbeat. The sound was fast but steady. Grace tried to speak, but pain cut through her ribs.
Her husband, Ethan, arrived twenty minutes later. He rushed into the room with Vanessa Cole, the attorney who managed his family's company. Vanessa held Ethan's hand as though she belonged beside him. Grace noticed it, even through the haze of medication.
“Thank God you're alive,” Ethan whispered, touching Grace's cheek.
Vanessa stood behind him, pale and silent. When Grace asked who had called the police, Vanessa answered too quickly. “There was no other car. You probably lost control.”
The nurse looked up. Grace knew what she had seen. The black SUV had not been an illusion.
Before she could argue, the monitor suddenly alarmed. The baby's heart rate dropped, and the room filled with urgent voices. Ethan was pushed into the hallway. Vanessa followed, but Grace heard her whisper, “We need her signature before she wakes up completely.”
That sentence frightened Grace more than the crash.
A nurse named Maya leaned close and said, “Don't sign anything. Your father is on his way.”
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Grace had not spoken to her father in nearly three years. Richard Bennett had warned her that Ethan's company was hiding something, and Grace had chosen her marriage over him. Now, as the elevator doors opened at the end of the hall, Richard stepped out carrying a black folder.
He looked at Ethan, then at Vanessa, and said, “I have proof that crash was no accident.”
