Chapter 1 - The Signature Line
"Sign the papers, or you lose everything."
Leah Sutton stared at the black fountain pen resting on page nine.
Corinne Blake stood between Leah and the bedroom hallway in a perfect black suit.
"You are asking me to sign a lie," Leah said.
"I am asking you to correct a reckless allegation."
"Alicia Moreno was transferred thirty-eight miles while a high-risk maternity room sat empty."
"You do not know that."
"I saw the override."
Corinne's eyes sharpened.
"Where?"
Leah felt the baby move beneath her palm.
"My attorney told you not to contact me directly."
"Your attorney writes dramatic letters. I solve problems."
"By threatening pregnant women before breakfast?"
Corinne's mouth tightened.
She tapped page nine.
If she refused, Corinne had already explained the rest.
Your career disappears. Your husband's foundation gets subpoenaed. Your name becomes the privacy scandal.
"No," Leah said.
Corinne stepped closer.
"Think about Elliott."
"Do not use my husband as a weapon."
"He comes from a family whose name is on the maternity floor you are attacking."
"That makes the conflict worse, not better."
"It makes you a hypocrite."
Leah almost laughed.
"I grew up counting quarters for bus fare. Marrying a man with money did not remove my eyes."
Corinne reached for her wrist.
Leah pulled back.
"Do not touch me."
"Then sign."
"Get out."
Corinne grabbed her.
Leah twisted free and stepped backward.
Her hip hit the glass balcony railing.
Two stories of polished black stone opened below her.
For one terrifying second, her balance shifted the wrong way.
Corinne's face changed.
Not fear.
Calculation.
Leah caught the metal rail with both hands.
"Are you insane?"
A sharp pain tightened across her lower back.
Corinne stared at her stomach.
"You should sit down."
"You should leave."
The front-door intercom chimed through the house.
Neither woman moved.
Then the speaker crackled.
"Mrs. Sutton?"
It was the security guard at the gate.
"There is a woman here asking for you. Naomi Price."
Leah's breath caught.
Naomi was the night supervisor who had first warned her about the donor override.
Leah had not heard from her in three weeks.
The guard continued.
"She says she has the original transfer log."
Corinne went completely still.
May you like
Then Leah saw something she had never seen on the attorney's face before.
Panic.
