Chapter 2 - THE HEARTBEAT
The ambulance ride to Northwestern Memorial lasted eleven minutes.
It felt longer than seven hours in the elevator.
A paramedic named Carla kept one hand against my wrist while another adjusted the oxygen.
“Stay with me, Lucy.”
I hated that sentence.
People only said it when they were afraid you might leave.
“My baby.”
“We’re monitoring what we can.”
“Is she alive?”
Carla hesitated half a second too long.
“We’re getting you to obstetrics.”
That was not an answer.
I closed my eyes.
Immediately I saw black firefighter boots walking past me.
I forced them open again.
At the hospital, the emergency entrance exploded into motion.
Voices.
Lights.
Hands.
Questions.
Someone cut open my blouse.
Someone attached monitors.
Someone called fetal medicine.
Then a doctor pressed a Doppler probe against my abdomen.
I stared at the ceiling.
Nothing.
The doctor moved the probe.
Still nothing.
My fingers gripped the sheet.
“Please.”
She adjusted the angle.
Then the room filled with a rapid, distant rhythm.
Fast.
Faint.
Beautiful.
My daughter’s heartbeat.
I started crying without making a sound.
The doctor leaned closer.
“She’s there.”
I covered my face.
For several minutes, I forgot Alex existed.
My blood oxygen was low.
I was severely dehydrated.
My blood pressure had dropped dangerously.
The baby showed signs of stress, but there was no immediate evidence that delivery was necessary.
They admitted me for observation.
I had just been moved upstairs when the door opened.
Alex came in.
He still wore his turnout pants and department shirt.
My ring hung from a thin cord around his neck.
I stared at it.
Of course he had found a way to make even my goodbye look sentimental.
He stopped several feet from the bed.
“Lucy.”
I looked toward the window.
“I called your mother.”
“Why?”
“She should know.”
“You thought of my mother after you remembered your wife existed?”
He flinched.
“Please don’t do this right now.”
I turned my head slowly.
“Do what?”
“Make what happened something it wasn’t.”
The monitors beside me continued beeping.
I watched him.
That was the first moment I understood there might be something worse than what I had already seen.
Because Alex was not ashamed.
Not yet.
He was defensive.
“Valerie was closest to the opening.”
“She was conscious.”
“She had collapsed.”
“So had I.”
“I didn’t see you.”
That lie entered the room quietly.
I knew it was a lie before he finished saying it.
Mark had looked straight into the elevator and seen me from the opening.
Alex was taller.
Alex had more experience.
Alex had been the first person through.
“You didn’t see me?”
“No.”
My voice became almost calm.
“Then why did Valerie look back at me while you carried her out?”
Alex’s eyes shifted.
Just once.
Toward the floor.
There it was.
The crack.
I felt colder than I had inside the elevator.
“You did see me.”
He said nothing.
“You saw me.”
“Lucy, the scene was chaotic.”
“You saw your pregnant wife on the floor and chose your ex.”
His jaw tightened.
“She was having a panic attack.”
“And our daughter was losing oxygen.”
He looked at the monitor.
That was when I said the sentence that changed everything.
“Get out.”
He stared at me.
“Lucy.”
“Get out before I call security.”
His face hardened.
“You’re not thinking clearly.”
I reached for the nurse button.
“I have never thought more clearly in my life.”
Before he could answer, another man appeared in the doorway.
Mark.
His uniform had been changed, but soot still darkened the side of his neck.
He looked from Alex to me.
Then he held up a small black body camera.
“Lieutenant.”
Alex went pale.
May you like
Mark’s voice was steady.
“I think Internal Affairs needs to see what this recorded inside that elevator.”
