All Chapters of The Second Wife's Revenge : Chapter 121 - Chapter 130

The alarm kept screaming.The NICU nurse moved fast. Both hands working. Adjusting the oxygen delivery. Checking connections. Reading the monitor numbers dropping in real time.Sixty-eight percent. Sixty-five. Sixty-two."What's happening?" Marcus demanded."Her oxygen saturation dropped. We're assessing.""Why did it drop?""Sir, I need you to step back."The attending physician arrived. Running. White coat. Stethoscope swinging. She moved directly to Grace's incubator without looking at any of us."How fast did it drop?""Two minutes. Started at ninety-seven. Currently sixty-one.""Increase supplemental O2. Get respiratory therapy. Now."More staff appearing. The NICU suddenly full of people in a space built for quiet careful work.I pressed against the incubator. Someone's arm blocked me. Professional. Firm."Mom, I need you to move back. Let us work.""She's my daughter. I'm not leaving.""I understand. But you need to give us space. Please."Marcus pulled me back. Two steps. Just

Two weeks.Fourteen days of hospital cafeteria coffee and uncomfortable chairs and learning the NICU nurse rotation by heart. Fourteen days of watching numbers on monitors become the most important thing in my world. Oxygen saturation. Weight. Feeding volumes. Each one a small victory or a small setback.Grace had more victories than setbacks.Day three post-surgery. Her oxygen saturation holding steady above ninety-six percent. The surgical site healing cleanly. Dr. Hernandez visiting once daily. Each visit shorter than the last. A good sign.Day five. They removed the breathing support entirely. Grace breathing on her own. Completely. No supplemental oxygen. No nasal cannula. Just her own two lungs doing exactly what they were supposed to do.The nurse marked it in the chart with the quiet satisfaction of someone who'd hoped for exactly this outcome.I cried for twenty minutes in the hospital bathroom. Then came back and pressed my hand through the incubator port. Grace's fingers cu

Rodriguez arrived at the loft by 7 AM. Grace was asleep in the bassinet. The video had been live forty minutes. Already shared thousands of times before the platform removed it. Already downloaded and reposted everywhere else. Thomas Cross understood how the internet worked. He'd learned from his mother's mistakes. Catherine had operated in shadows. Thomas operated in the open. Knowing visibility was its own kind of weapon. Rodriguez sat at the kitchen table. Coffee Marcus put in front of her untouched. "We thought he was in custody. He escaped during the Glens Falls arrest." Marcus stiffened. "You said he was taken without incident." "The agents believed he was secured. He wasn't. Slipped out during transfer. We didn't confirm until two hours later." She met my eyes. "I should have told you immediately. I'm sorry." "He's been free this whole time. While Grace was in the NICU. While we drove home. While we were here last night." "Yes." The weight of it settled. Tho

Wait.Rodriguez had said Thomas cross is down hands secured in custody.But the line stayed open. And thirty seconds later her voice came back. Different."Correction. Thomas Cross broke away. He's inside the building. Service entrance. He had a second route we missed."My chest tightened. "Robert is inside.""I know. We're moving. Thirty seconds.""Rodriguez.""Thirty seconds Aria. Stay on the line."I stood from the couch. Grace still on my chest. Warm and sleeping. Completely unaware.Marcus appeared from the kitchen. Read my face. "What happened.""Thomas Cross got inside. Robert is in there."He moved immediately. Toward his jacket. His phone.Dante blocked the door before either of us reached it. "Nobody leaves this loft.""Robert is in there alone with Cross.""FBI is thirty seconds behind Thomas Cross. Robert is not alone." Dante's voice. Immovable. "Stay here."The phone against my ear. Rodriguez's line. Voices in the background. Movement. Tactical communication I could half-

Robert's hospital room was smaller than the ones at Albany Medical. Single window. View of a parking structure. The specific indignity of city hospital rooms.He sat up in bed. Left shoulder bandaged. Arm in a sling. IV line. Hospital gown.Complaining about the hospital gown when we arrived. A good sign."It opens in the back," he said. "Deliberately humiliating.""It's the same for everyone," Marcus said."That doesn't make it better."I carried Grace in her carrier. She'd slept the entire drive. She slept with the commitment of someone who'd decided rest was a full-time occupation.Robert's face changed when we came through the door. All the complaint draining out of it. Replaced by something simpler. Relief. Warmth.I sat in the chair beside his bed. Positioned Grace where he could see her face."How bad is it?" I asked. Meaning the shoulder. Meaning all of it."Through and through. Missed everything important. Surgeon said I was lucky." He looked at his bandaged shoulder with the