Chapter 24

After sometime, She woke slowly.

Not all at once, but in fragments- sound first, then sensation, then awareness like a wound reopening. The smell of antiseptic returned before her vision did. Her body felt wrong. Empty in a way she had never experienced before. Heavy and hollow at the same time.

Her eyes fluttered open.

White ceiling.

Different from before.

The room was quieter now. Smaller.

Recovery, she realized distantly. Her throat was dry, her head throbbing with a dull, persistent ache. She shifted slightly and froze.

The weight was gone.

Her breath caught violently in her chest.

"No." she croaked.

Her hands moved instinctively, trembling as they slid down her abdomen. Flat. Bandaged. Aching- but empty. The child who had stretched her skin and bones for months was gone, leaving behind a void so profound it felt like gravity itself had changed.

"No. No---No---" she said again, louder now, panic flaring white-hot.

She tried to sit up. Pain tore through her lower body, sharp and immediate, forcing a cry from her throat. She collapsed back against the pillows, heart pounding so hard she felt dizzy.

"Where is she? Where's my baby?" she gasped.

The door opened quietly.

A nurse stepped in, expression carefully neutral.

"You need to rest. You've been through a lot." the nurse said gently, moving toward her.

Innara shook her head violently.

"No. Don't--- don't say that. Where's my baby? I want my baby." She said, voice breaking.

The nurse's hands paused mid-motion.

"She's being... evaluated." She said after a beat.

Innara's chest tightened painfully.

"Bring her here...now!" She demanded.

The nurse avoided her eyes.

"I can't." She denied softly as if she was guilty.

The words slammed into Innara like a physical blow.

"Why? What's wrong with her? Is she hurt? Please--- just tell me." She whispered desperately.

The nurse adjusted the IV instead, movements too careful, too rehearsed.

"You need to calm down, Stress isn't good for you." she said.

Something inside Innara snapped.

"Stop saying that, I don't care about me. I care about my daughter. Where is she?" she cried hoarsely.

Silence.

The nurse stepped back, hands clasped tightly in front of her.

"I'll get the doctor." she said quietly.

And then she left.

The door closed.

Locked.

Innara lay there shaking, tears streaming unchecked down her temples into her hair. Her breathing came in short, shallow bursts. Her instincts screamed louder now than they had during labor, every nerve in her body on fire with certainty. They had taken her. Minutes passed. Or hours.

Time lost meaning as fear hollowed her out from the inside. She stared at the door, willing it to open, rehearsing what she would say, what she would do, how she would fight if she had to- even in this broken, aching body.

Finally, footsteps.

The door opened again.

This time, it wasn't a nurse.

It was the doctor.

Dr. Nitya.

Innara recognized her immediately- not just by face, but by presence. She was the one who had operated, the one whose voice had cut through the chaos with authority. Mid-twenties, sharp eyes softened by something Innara hadn't seen in anyone else here yet: unease.

Hope flared painfully in her chest.

"Doctor, Please---" she rasped out hoarsely.

Dr. Nitya closed the door behind her.

That small, deliberate action sent a jolt through Innara's spine.

"Tell me where my baby is, Please. I don't care what's wrong with me. Just tell me she's alive." Innara pleaded, tears spilling freely now.

Dr. Nitya studied her for a long moment, her eyes filled with concern.

"Yes, She's alive." she said finally.

The relief was so sudden and overwhelming that Innara sobbed, a broken sound tearing from her chest.

"Oh God, thank you-- thank you-- please bring her to me. I need to see her." she whispered.

Dr. Nitya didn't move.

The silence stretched.

Innara's relief curdled into dread.

"You're not answering, Why aren't you answering?" she said shakily.

Dr. Nitya exhaled slowly, then pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat.

"That's not a decision I'm allowed to make." she said carefully.

Innara stared at her.

"What do you mean?" she whispered.

Dr. Nitya's jaw tightened.

"There are… people involved, Your case is not being handled like a normal delivery." she said.

A bitter laugh tore out of Innara.

"You think I don't know that? They've been watching me for months. They brought me here. They decide when I eat, when I sleep, when I breathe. But she's my child. She's all I have" she said hoarsely.

Her voice cracked completely.

Dr. Nitya's gaze flicked briefly to the door, then back to Innara.

"No mother deserves that, Innara. But I don't know why things aren't in my control. Tell me the truth. Please. I need to know everything before taking actions."

Nitya asked her calmly really wanting to help her.

That was all the support Innara needed.

"My name is Innara." she said quickly.

Desperation pouring out of her like blood from an open wound.

"I'm not from here. I was taken. I didn't come willingly. The men who brought me- this hospital- they're not protecting me. They're controlling me. They are into sex trafficking and I'm a survivor of a brothel. They somehow got to know that I'm pregnant and they took me from my saviours place assuring me they are taking me somewhere safer. Even if I didn't believe them I didn't have any power to refuse them." Innara let out everything in a single breath.

Dr. Nitya went still.

"My baby. They didn't let me hold her. They took her away the moment I passed out. I know what this is. I've lived this before. Please-- please-- don't let them erase her. I want my baby back." Innara begged, sobbing now, words tumbling over each other.

Nitya's fingers tightened around the arm of the chair. It was a lot of information to consume for the very first time.

"Innara. Are these men from the same brothel, you mentioned?" she asked quietly.

Innara laughed weakly through her tears.

"I don't know, I don't even know whose country I'm in half the time. But I know what they do. I know what happens to girls who don't belong to themselves." she admitted.

She reached out, gripping Nitya's sleeve with trembling fingers.

"I've already lost everything once, I won't survive losing her. Please. Help me." she whispered.

For a long moment, Dr. Nitya said nothing.

Then, slowly, she stood.

"I need you to listen to me, And I need you to be very quiet about what you've just told me." she said.

Innara nodded frantically.

"I can't promise you anything, But I can look. I will try my best to bring your daughter back." Nitya continued.

Innara's breath hitched.

"You'll bring her back?" she asked desperately.

"I'll try to find her." Nitya said honestly.

It was more than anyone else had given her.

"Thank you." Innara whispered, collapsing back against the pillows, exhaustion and pain crashing over her anew.

"Thank you." She sighed out painfully.

Dr. Nitya turned toward the door, pausing with her hand on the handle.

"Innara, Whatever happens-- do not confront anyone. Not yet." she said without looking back.

Innara nodded weakly.

As the door closed behind her, fear surged again-- but this time, it wasn't alone.

Hope had taken root.

Fragile. Dangerous. Necessary.

Somewhere in this hospital, her daughter was breathing. And Innara would not let them take her without a fight.

As soon as, Dr. Nitya came out of the room, she let out a shaky breath. Her forehead was sweating at the new information she just got. She couldn't believe the men who were telling themselves as her family members were the men who were controlling her and ready to take her baby either to erase her existence or pull her into something more dangerous just like Innara. She straight walked without giving anyone a single glance.

Dr. Nitya did not go looking for trouble.

Trouble had a way of finding her anyway.

She moved through the hospital corridors with the same composure she had worn for over two years- measured steps, straight spine, face unreadable to anyone who didn't know her well enough to read the smallest changes. Nurses stepped aside automatically. Junior doctors nodded. No one questioned where she was going or why. That was the privilege of seniority. That, and the illusion that people like her were beyond suspicion.

Inside, however, something had already fractured. Innara's voice echoed in her mind- not loud, not hysterical, but stripped bare by truth. The kind of truth that didn't beg for belief because it didn't need it.

They took her.

Dr. Nitya stopped in front of the neonatal wing.

The security had been increased since the early morning. Two men stood near the glass doors- not hospital staff. Their posture was wrong. Too alert. Too still. Their eyes tracked movement instead of patients.

Her jaw tightened.

She adjusted the ID badge clipped to her coat and walked forward without hesitation.

"Doctor." one of the men said politely not wanting to make her suspicious of them, stepping slightly into her path.

"I'm late, move." she replied coolly.

There was a pause- brief, calculating.

Then he stepped aside.

Inside, the air was warmer. Softer. The quiet here was different- filled with the low sounds of life just beginning. Dr. Nitya walked straight to the nurse's station.

"Baby from Room 412, Female. Delivered earlier today." she said calmly.

The nurse glanced at the screen.

"Yes, Doctor, She's… been flagged." she said.

That word settled heavily.

"Flagged how?" Nitya asked.

The nurse hesitated.

"There was an instruction to prepare her for transfer, Private arrangement." she said quietly.

Nitya leaned forward slightly.

"Transfer where?" She questioned immediately.

The nurse swallowed.

"They didn't say." She replied in a low voice.

That was enough.

Dr. Nitya straightened, masking the fury that flared sharp and sudden in her chest.

"Take me to her." she said.

They hesitated- just long enough to confirm what Nitya already suspected.

"I said, take me to her." she repeated, voice steel-wrapped calm.

The nurse obeyed not having any other option.

The baby lay in a clear bassinet under soft lights, swaddled tightly. Small. Perfect. Her skin was flushed, her tiny fists clenched as she slept, unaware of the storm circling her existence.

Dr. Nitya felt something twist painfully inside her.

"She's healthy, No complications." the nurse said quietly.

Of course she was.

"Who authorized the transfer?" Nitya asked. The nurse glanced toward the door.

"They said it came from upstairs." She said looking back down on the floor.

From people who didn't exist on paper.

Nitya nodded once.

"Thank you, You may go." she said.

The nurse hesitated.

"Doctor---" the nurse tried to object but Nitya cut her in the middle.

"I'll take responsibility." Nitya said firmly.

The nurse has to leave.

Dr. Nitya stood alone with the baby.

For a long moment, she did nothing.

Then she moved.

She removed the bassinet from the system with practiced efficiency, scanning her badge, overriding alerts with codes she hadn't used in months but had never forgotten. She disconnected the monitor quietly. The baby stirred but didn't cry.

"Shh, mera baccha. I've got you." Nitya whispered instinctively.

(Translation: My baby.)

She wheeled the bassinet down a different corridor- not toward the exit, not toward records, but toward an old storage wing slated for renovation. No cameras. No foot traffic. Forgotten.

Inside, she transferred the baby into a portable carrier, wrapping her more securely, adjusting the tiny cap over her head.

Then she pulled out her phone.

Two messages. Short. Precise.

The first canceled the transfer request under a medical override.

The second erased the record.

Innara's file was already unusual- partial, fragmented, flagged. That made it easier.

Within minutes, there was no patient named Innara in Room 412.

No baby girl was born that morning.

No digital trail that led anywhere meaningful.

Dr. Nitya exhaled slowly.

Then she moved again.