Chapter 6 - The Awakening
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Inside the maternity ward on the fourth floor, the atmosphere was entirely different. Soft lighting, quiet monitors, and the gentle hum of recovering patients filled the corridors.
Vanessa Reed slowly opened her eyes, groaning as the dull ache in her lower abdomen radiated through her body. She blinked against the bright sunlight streaming through the hospital window, her hand instinctively flying to her stomach in a sheer panic.
“The baby,” she gasped, her voice raw and panicked.
“Your baby is perfectly fine, Ms. Reed,” a gentle voice said from the doorway.
Dr. Evans, a senior obstetrician and one of my closest colleagues, walked into the room carrying a medical chart. He offered Vanessa a warm, professional smile, checking her vitals on the monitor beside the bed.
“The bleeding has completely stopped,” Dr. Evans explained, noting her chart. “You experienced a severe subchorionic hematoma. It’s terrifying, but relatively common in the first trimester. Your pregnancy is fully viable, but you will need to be on strict bed rest for the next three weeks.”
Vanessa let out a massive, shaking breath of relief, tears of gratitude spilling down her pale cheeks. “Thank God. Where is my husband? Where is Vincent?”
Dr. Evans paused, his pen freezing over the chart. The entire hospital staff knew exactly what had transpired in the emergency room on Christmas Eve. The gossip had spread like wildfire through the nurses' stations and doctors' lounges.
“Mr. Moretti is not currently in the hospital,” Dr. intervention said carefully, maintaining a neutral, clinical expression. “He left the premises a few days ago.”
Vanessa frowned, a spark of confusion cutting through her exhaustion. “He left? Why would he leave me here alone?”
Dr. Evans hesitated, knowing he was stepping across a very delicate, highly explosive professional boundary. But he also knew the woman lying in the bed was a victim of a monstrous deception.
“Ms. Reed,” Dr. Evans began softly, pulling a chair up to the side of her bed. “Do you remember the emergency room physician who treated you when you first arrived? The doctor who stabilized your hemorrhaging and saved your pregnancy?”
Vanessa nodded slowly. “Yes. She had dark hair. She was very fast. Why?”
“That was Dr. Claire Moretti,” Dr. Evans said, his voice quiet but incredibly firm.
Vanessa’s brow furrowed in utter confusion. “Moretti? Like Vincent?”
“Yes,” Dr. Evans nodded slowly, watching the realization begin to dawn in her eyes. “She is our chief of emergency medicine. And she is Vincent Moretti’s legal wife.”
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The color drained entirely from Vanessa’s face. She stared at the doctor in absolute, paralyzed horror, the monitor beside her bed suddenly beeping rapidly as her heart rate spiked.
“No,” Vanessa whispered, her hands shaking violently against the white hospital sheets. “No, that’s impossible. Vincent told me his divorce was finalized two years ago.”
