Two Heartbeats in the Ambulance
Chapter 03 - Two Heartbeats in the Ambulance
The ambulance doors slammed shut, cutting Ethan off from the stunned crowd. Inside, machines beeped while paramedic Sofia Ramirez fought to stabilize Grace’s blood pressure. Another medic held a monitor against Grace’s belly.
“The baby’s in distress,” he said.
Ethan sat near Grace’s feet, one hand gripping the rail so hard his knuckles whitened. Every turn of the ambulance threatened to tear him apart. He had spent eight months supervising a hotel project in Abu Dhabi, telling himself the long contract would secure his family’s future. Now he could not stop wondering whether his absence had made this possible.
At St. Catherine’s Hospital, a medical team rushed Grace through double doors. Dr. Maya Chen, the emergency obstetrician, met Ethan in the corridor.
“We need to deliver the baby immediately. Your wife is alive, but she is deeply unresponsive. We don’t yet know why.”
“Save them both.”
“We’ll do everything we can.”
Ethan signed forms with a shaking hand. Then he waited beneath a clock that seemed determined not to move.
Twenty-seven minutes later, a nurse appeared carrying a tiny bundle wrapped in a pale blue blanket. “Your daughter is breathing on her own.”
Ethan’s knees nearly gave way.
The baby opened her eyes for one brief moment, as if checking that he had arrived. Ethan touched her cheek and whispered the name Grace had chosen months earlier.
“Hope.”
The nurse smiled. “She’s small, but she’s strong.”
Grace was transferred to intensive care. Dr. Chen explained that her body showed signs of severe drug-induced suppression: slow breathing, lowered heart rate, and a temperature so low that an inexperienced examiner might have mistaken her condition for death.
“But Dr. Vale is experienced,” Ethan said.
Dr. Chen did not answer directly. “We’ve sent blood samples to toxicology. The police should be involved.”
They already were. Detective Lena Brooks arrived before midnight and took the false death certificate into evidence. She asked about Grace’s final days, her enemies, and the urgent message she had sent Ethan.
“I don’t know what she found,” he admitted. “She was scared, but I thought it was about the baby.”
His phone vibrated. A voicemail notification appeared—delayed during his flight.
It was from Grace, recorded at 2:13 a.m. the morning she collapsed.
Her voice was weak and hurried.
“Ethan, if you hear this, don’t trust the papers Victor gives you. The trust was changed. I have proof, but someone is inside the house.”
A floorboard creaked in the recording.
May you like
Grace whispered one final sentence.
“If anything happens to me, it started with the tea.”
