Chapter 7 - The Line in the Sand|
It was a small word, but inside that room, it sounded like a dynamite charge going off in a marble hallway.
Michael stared at her, his jaw clenching until a muscle jumped in his cheek. "No?"
"I'm not going back to Chestnut Hill," Catherine said, her voice calm, clear, and absolute. "I'm not going back to your house, I'm not going back to your guards, and I am no longer going to be the silent wife who sits in the dark while you run this city."
Rachel stepped up beside the bed, holding a thick leather folder she had pulled from her tote bag. She set it on the bedside table, right next to Catherine’s phone.
It was a standard, two-page legal separation filing, signed in blue ink by Catherine three weeks earlier—a document she had held onto, hoping against hope that she would never need to use it.
Michael glanced down at the paper, his eyes skipping over the header before returning to her face.
"You think a piece of paper stops me?" Michael rasped, stepping so close his suit jacket brushed the bed frame. "Catherine, you know who I am. You know what I control in this city. You don't walk away from me. No one walks away from me."
"I just did," Catherine said.
Before Michael could respond, the door swung open again.
Dr. Daniel Brooks stepped into the room, holding a metal clipboard. He glanced at Michael, then at the two guards standing outside the glass partition, before walking directly to the foot of the bed.
"Mr. Harrison," Daniel said, his tone entirely professional, entirely devoid of fear. "Visiting hours for non-authorized personnel end at eight. Mrs. Harrison needs rest, and the baby needs her examination."
Michael slowly turned his head to look at the doctor. The look he gave Daniel could have killed a lesser man on the spot.
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"Who the hell are you?" Michael asked softly.
"I'm the doctor who delivered your daughter while you were busy," Daniel replied, looking Michael straight in the eye without blinking. "And right now, I'm telling you to leave my patient's room."
