Chapter 1 The Diagnosis in Red

Kara stared at her reflection in the dirty mirror of the coffee shop bathroom,her skin looked translucent. Her fingers trembled as she pressed the send button on the disposable burner phone. The encrypted data packet vanished from the screen, on its way to the client who knew her only as The Ghost.

A sharp cramp twisted in her lower abdomen, it wasn't a normal ache, it felt like a serrated knife being dragged through her insides.The phone slipped into the sink, Kara gasped, gripping the edge of the porcelain sink so hard her knuckles turned white.

Then she felt it, a warm, wet sensation sliding down her inner thigh.

Kara looked down.

On the cracked beige tiles, a drop of bright red blood splattered, then another, then a stream.

She stumbled backward, colliding with a woman who was just walking in, the woman screamed.

The edges of Kara vision turned black, she fell. The last thing she saw was her own hand, pale and shaking, reaching out across the floor as a pool of red expanded around it.

The sounds of the emergency room were a symphony of chaos, Beeping monitors. The squeak of rubber soles on linoleum. Voices shouting medical jargon that Kara couldn't process.

She was on a gurney, the lights overhead were blinding.

Dr. Evans was there. She recognized him from her previous secret visits. He looked grim, was shouting orders at a nurse who was trying to find a vein in Kara's bruised arm.

Kara grabbed the doctor's sleeve.

"My baby," she whispered. "Is the baby okay?"

Dr. Evans didn't look at her, he looked at the monitor, his voice was fast, clipped.

"Acute complications from the leukemia, we have to terminate the pregnancy immediately. We have to do a D and C right now or you are going to bleed out."

Kara shook her head, tears mixed with the cold sweat on her temples. "No. Please. Save him."

"We don't have a choice, Kara. You are dying."

The doctor looked at the nurse. "Get the consent forms, we need a signature, or get the husband. Is the husband here?"

Kara's hand fell from his sleeve, she nodded weakly. The nurse shoved a phone into her hand, It was her personal phone.

She dialed the number that was pinned to the top of her contacts list. The number she was never supposed to call during business hours.

Davin.

The conference room at Johnston Global was silent, save for the hum of the air conditioning. Davin Johnston sat at the head of the long mahogany table, the acquisition team was droning on about quarterly projections.

His personal phone vibrated against the polished wood.

He glanced down. The name on the screen made his jaw tighten. Kara.

He reached out to decline the call. Then he remembered his grandfather's voice from yesterday. Be nice to her, Davin. She's family.

Davin let out a short, annoyed breath and picked up the phone.

"What is it, Kara?"

"Davin." Her voice was wet, broken. "I'm at the hospital. The baby... please, I need you to sign..."

Davin froze, his eyes flicked to the end of the table. Alyse was sitting there, ostensibly taking notes for the meeting, though she was mostly just twirling a gold pen. She looked up, catching his eye.

She mouthed the words: Is she asking for money again?

Davin remembered the conversation he had with Alyse last night. Alyse had warned him, she said Kara was desperate, that she would invent a pregnancy scare to lock down her share of the trust fund before the fiscal year ended.

A cold sneer curled Davin's lip.

"Kara," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "You really have no bottom, do you? You're lying about a child to squeeze cash out of me?"

"Davin, please!" Kara screamed on the other end.

"If you want to get rid of it, that's your choice," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Don't try to pin this on me as leverage. I'm in a meeting."

He pulled the phone away from his ear and tapped the red icon. He tossed the device onto the table. It landed with a loud clatter.

The room was dead silent. Every executive was staring at him.

"Continue," Davin said, leaning back in his leather chair.

The dial tone buzzed in Kara's ear.

She let the phone slide from her fingers. It hit the floor.

The monitor above her head let out a long, high-pitched whine.

"BP is crashing!" Dr. Evans yelled. "Forget the husband! We're losing her! Get her to the OR now!"

The gurney began to move. The ceiling tiles rushed past in a blur. Kara felt the cold creeping up her legs, settling in her chest. She closed her eyes. A single tear leaked out, hot against her freezing skin.

Davin, she thought, as the darkness swallowed her whole. You just killed us.