The two-week "adventure" had slowly bled into a restless routine. In Sonoma, the waves were peaceful, but my phone told a different story. As the days passed, the buzzing became a constant hum. Emergency cases—traumas that only my hands could fix—were stacking up at St. Jude's.
I was a mother in hiding, yes, but I was still a doctor.
By the second week, I started making the drive back into the city before the sun touched the horizon. I would leave Justin at the house to guard Leo and Nanny B, or sometimes he would shadow me, a silent ghost in the driver's seat. At the hospital, things felt almost normal. Marcus was sitting up, his strength returning with a stubbornness that reminded me painfully of his brother. Miller was already limping down the hallways, refusing to stay in bed.
On Tuesday, I made a choice. I couldn't keep Leo in a cage of glass and cedar anymore. I sent him back to school. He needed his friends; he needed his life. If I must escape his constant " Mummy, didn't you say daddy would come for us?", he had asked one morning. Mummy, "Daddy isn't coming again is he? He is no longer my friend. I won't share my candy with him." he asked again after two days. Look mummy, I made a drawing of daddy, you and myself."
I took the drawing from him and forced myself to put on a smiling face and told him it was beautiful and that his daddy would love it when he saw it. Of course I knew this wasn't going to be possible anymore.. Had I been a bad mother to Leo by denying him of knowing his father in the past? Now it was already too late. I fought back the tears in my eyes..
By Friday afternoon, I thought we had won. I thought the shadows had lost our trail.
I was in the surgical wing, scrubbing out after a four-hour reconstruction, when the first scream echoed through the sterilized hallway.
Pop. Pop-pop.
The sound of gunfire is unmistakable once you've heard it in your own home. I froze, my hands still dripping with water. Through the glass of the scrub room, I saw them: four men in tactical gear, their faces hidden behind black masks. They weren't here for drugs or money. They were moving with a terrifying focus.
"Dr. Valentine! Get down!"
It was Miller . He appeared at the end of the hall, his face pale but his eyes burning. He wasn't alone. Marcus was behind him, leaning against the wall for support but holding a sidearm with a steady hand.
The hallway turned into a kill zone.
Glass shattered as Marcus and Miller and the Asher's other men in charge of keeping Marcus safe exchanged fire with the intruders. Two of the masked men went down in a spray of red, but the others kept coming. I dove behind a stainless steel gurney just as a bullet whizzed past, hot air grazing my shoulder.
A sharp, searing pain flared in my arm. I reached up, my fingers coming away red. A graze. Just a graze.
"Go! Chloe, get out of here!" Marcus roared over the thunder of the shots.
I scrambled toward the service exit, my heart hammering against my ribs. My phone vibrated non stop over and over again in my pocket. But I need to get to safety first for Leo before thinking about picking up a call. I pulled my phone from my pocket, and saw several missed calls from Nanny B and my heart sank in fear. Is Leo alright? My fingers slick with my own blood. I had to call Justin. I had to get to Leo.
The phone connected on the first ring, but it wasn't Justin's voice. It was Nanny B, and she was screaming.
"Ma'am! They're here! Men with guns—they tried to take Leo!"
"Nanny B? Where is Justin? Is Leo okay?" I screamed into the phone, ignoring the chaos behind me as Miller took down a third attacker.
"Justin fought them, but there were too many! Then... then another car came," Nanny B sobbed, her voice barely audible over the sound of a screeching engine. "Men we don't know... they pushed the gunmen back. They took us, Ma'am! They took Justin and Leo into a black SUV. They said they were taking us to 'The Sanctuary'!"
"Who?! Nanny B, who took you?"
The line went dead.
I stood in the cold hospital stairwell, blood dripping from my shoulder, staring at the blank screen. My son was gone. At that moment, my entire world went black.My guard was gone. And I was standing in a pool of blood with nowhere left to run.
********