Chapter 20 - The Scalpel in the Dark
The surgery lasted nine agonizing hours.
Standing under the blinding halogen canopy of OR 3, my hands worked with mechanical, merciless precision.
I carefully dissected the fibrous adhesions surrounding the girl’s pulmonary artery, peeling Daniel’s defective titanium valve away from the ruined tissue.
By the time the final nylon suture was tied and the bypass machine was weaned down, the clock on the tiled wall read 11:42 PM.
Her heart took over, beating with a steady, magnificent rhythm.
She was going to live.
My mother’s true design had held.
Exhausted to the point of delirium, I stripped off my blood-spattered surgical gown and stepped out into the scrub room.
The entire floor was deserted, the night shift nurses busy with patient transfers down the hall.
I walked toward the locker room to retrieve my coat and keys, longing for the cold air of the street.
As I pushed the locker room door open, the lights suddenly flickered and died.
The emergency backup generator clicked, but only cast a dim, amber glow across the metal lockers.
A cold draft swept through the narrow space.
At the far end of the room, sitting on the wooden bench beneath my locker, was a man.
He was wearing a dark, unzipped windbreaker, his hair disheveled, his jaw covered in rough, uneven stubble.
In his right hand, the blade of a surgical scalpel glinted under the amber emergency bulb.
"Hello, Emma," Daniel whispered, his voice hoarse, trembling with the manic energy of a cornered beast.
I took an instinctive step back, reaching for the wall-mounted emergency alarm.
"I wouldn't touch that button if I were you," Daniel said, slowly rising from the bench.
His eyes were wild, bloodshot, completely vacant of the charming, polished fiancé I had loved for five years.
"You think Finch’s arrest ends this?" he asked, stepping out of the shadows.
He tapped the scalpel lightly against his own palm, drawing a thin, bright bead of blood.
"Finch didn't work for Vancorp, Emma."
"Vancorp belongs to someone you’ve been trusting every single day since you walked back into this building."
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Daniel took another step forward, the steel blade trembling between his white knuckles.
"And they sent me here to make sure you never testify."
