Chapter 1 - The Strike in the Suite
The luxury private maternity suite at St. Catherine’s Hospital looked more like a five-star hotel penthouse than a medical room. The soft glow of the bedside lamps illuminated the pristine floral arrangements and the rhythmic blinking of the medical monitors. But the serene atmosphere was violently shattered by the sound of a brutal, echoing slap.
Claire’s father, William, a highly distinguished sixty-year-old man with sharp silver hair and a tailored navy blue suit, stood in the center of the room. His hand was still raised from the sheer, ferocious force of the strike.
Ryan, a handsome man in his late thirties wearing a dark blue vest over a white shirt, stumbled backward. He clutched his burning red cheek, his eyes wide with absolute, breathless shock as he looked at his furious father-in-law.
"You gave away my daughter’s private suite while she was in labor?!" William roared, his furious, stern voice vibrating through the thick walls of the hospital room.
Ryan had been attempting to walk right out the door to answer a frantic phone call, completely ignoring the fact that his wife was lying in the hospital bed behind him.
Just outside the heavy suite doors, the chaotic scene escalated. Two burly hospital security officers were physically restraining Vanessa, a blonde woman in her late twenties wearing a white dress. She was screaming and thrashing wildly, trying to force her way into the room.
Inside the suite, Claire’s mother, Eleanor, an elegant woman in a red tweed jacket and a heavy pearl necklace, rushed to the side of the hospital bed. She wrapped her arms protectively around her daughter’s head, glaring at Ryan with a look of pure, unadulterated disgust.
Ryan dropped his hand from his bruised cheek, trying to salvage his arrogant, dominant persona in front of the wealthy family he had spent years trying to impress.
May you like
"Vanessa had an emergency C-section!" Ryan stammered in a loud, defensive tone, gesturing wildly toward the screaming woman in the hallway. "She was alone, she needed help!"
👉 Read Part 2 to discover the agonizing betrayal Claire endured twelve hours earlier.
