Chapter 2 - THE RACE TO SAVE TWO LIVES
Paramedics entered the apartment less than four minutes later.
They immediately placed oxygen over Lily’s face and began checking the baby’s heartbeat.
The lead paramedic looked at Adam.
“How long has she been bleeding?”
“I don’t know. I just got home.”
Lily tried to answer.
“Three… hours.”
Adam felt the room tilt.
Three hours.
His mother had answered Lily’s call during that time.
One paramedic found Lily’s blood pressure dangerously low. Another attached a fetal monitor and listened in tense silence.
The baby’s heartbeat was too slow.
“We’re transporting now.”
Adam climbed into the ambulance beside Lily.
Margaret remained on the phone.
He had forgotten to end the recorded call.
“What is all that noise?” she demanded.
“An ambulance.”
Margaret became quiet.
Then she said, “She was fine when I left.”
Adam’s eyes moved toward Lily.
His mother had just confirmed she had been there.
“You told me you hadn’t seen her today.”
“I said she was fine.”
“You said you were at home.”
“Adam, this is not the time to interrogate me.”
Lily’s monitor released a sharp warning tone.
The paramedic pushed medication into her IV.
Adam lowered his voice.
“What happened in that bedroom?”
Margaret’s answer came too quickly.
“She became hysterical. She threw things. She refused to listen.”
“Why didn’t you call for help?”
“Because she always exaggerates to control you.”
Adam looked at his wife’s pale face.
Lily had never used her pregnancy to control him.
But he had heard his mother make that accusation so many times that he had stopped challenging it.
The ambulance reached the hospital.
Doctors rushed Lily toward surgery while an obstetrician explained that the placenta might have separated too early.
“The baby is in distress,” the doctor said. “We may need to deliver immediately.”
Adam signed the emergency forms with shaking hands.
Before the operating-room doors closed, Lily caught his wrist.
“My phone,” she whispered. “Don’t let her take it.”
Adam placed it inside his jacket.
“I won’t.”
As the doors shut, he noticed a notification on the damaged screen.
A cloud backup had completed at 8:42 p.m.
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Four minutes after Margaret claimed she had already left the apartment.
👉 The backup contained more than call history—it held the final recording Margaret had tried to erase.
