Chapter 7 - Beatrice’s Custody Order
Beatrice tapped one gloved finger against the glass.
“Open the door, Clara.”
Naomi positioned herself between me and the entrance.
The hospital administrator read the order twice, then called the legal department.
Beatrice waited with infuriating patience.
She had changed nothing after leaving the mansion. Her cream silk suit remained spotless. Not a strand of silver-blonde hair had moved.
Only the blood-colored reflection of the EXIT sign touched her face.
The order declared that I was experiencing acute prenatal psychosis and posed a danger to myself, my unborn child, and others.
It cited my “violent disruption” of the baby shower.
It claimed I had attacked Chloe.
It stated Julian had restrained me to prevent greater injury.
Twenty witnesses had supposedly confirmed it.
I remembered the guests lowering their eyes while I lay among the broken gifts.
Beatrice had not wasted their silence.
She had turned it into testimony.
Naomi pointed at the signature time.
“This order was issued at 2:28. The judge reviewed only one side.”
The hospital attorney’s voice came through the administrator’s phone.
“Until it is vacated, we may be required to comply.”
“No,” I said.
Every face turned toward me.
“If they transfer me, they control my delivery. They control who enters the room. They control the records. And if something happens to me, Beatrice controls Noah before any challenge can be heard.”
Beatrice heard me through the glass.
Her smile thinned.
Naomi asked to see the full order.
The administrator handed her the tablet.
I watched Naomi’s expression change as she reached the final page.
“What?”
She rotated the screen toward me.
A supplemental clause authorized “necessary medical intervention to preserve the heir’s viability,” including induced delivery, surgical delivery, sedation, and temporary neonatal separation.
My stomach twisted.
I was thirty-four weeks pregnant.
Noah was healthy.
They intended to deliver him early.
Once he was born alive, the Whitmore trust would unlock.
If I was declared incapacitated, Julian or Beatrice could claim authority over my shares.
It was not merely theft.
It was a scheduled extraction.
I forced myself to breathe slowly.
“What does the order require before transfer?”
The attorney answered through the speaker.
“Confirmation by the attending physician and verification of immediate risk.”
Dr. Reed stood in the corner, gray-faced.
“I withdraw my assessment.”
The administrator looked at him.
“You cannot withdraw a filed affidavit without submitting a corrective statement.”
“Then give me the form.”
Beatrice’s hand struck the glass.
The sharp sound made everyone flinch.
Her composure cracked for the first time.
“You signed what was required, Doctor.”
Naomi opened the door just enough to step into the corridor.
“Mrs. Vale, remain where you are.”
Beatrice laughed softly.
“You are a city detective interfering with a lawful medical order.”
“And you are standing beside four men who are not licensed medical transport personnel.”
The men shifted.
Naomi had noticed what I had missed.
Their uniforms had no company insignia.
One wore a shoulder holster beneath his jacket.
Hospital security began closing the corridor.
Beatrice’s eyes met mine through the narrowing gap.
“You could have made this painless.”
“I could have made it easy,” I said. “That isn’t the same thing.”
Dr. Reed completed a sworn correction while the legal department sought an emergency hearing.
At 2:52, the judge temporarily suspended the transfer.
Beatrice received the update on her phone.
Her mouth tightened.
Then, without argument, she turned away.
That frightened me more than rage would have.
She had lost too easily.
Naomi searched the abandoned transport bed.
Beneath the mattress, she found leather restraints.
Inside a locked drawer was a prepared sedative kit labeled with my name, my weight, and a dosage high enough to keep me unconscious for hours.
The prescription bore Dr. Reed’s electronic credentials.
He stared at it.
“I never ordered this.”
Naomi checked the dispensing pharmacy.
The medication had been released by Vale Memorial forty minutes before Julian struck me.
Then her phone rang.
She listened without speaking.
When she hung up, her face had changed.
“The mansion’s security archive is gone,” she said. “Someone remotely wiped every camera at 2:49.”
At 2:49, Beatrice had been standing directly outside my room.
She had not come to retrieve me.
May you like
She had come to keep us occupied.
📖 Discover who erased the mansion cameras while Beatrice watched Clara—and what single surviving frame exposed in CHAPTER 8. 👇
