Chapter 4

My phone rang. Victoria.

I snatched it up.

"Michael, I hear you' re causing a scene at the hospital. How dare you?"

Her voice was ice.

"My son is dead, Victoria! Your security won' t let his ambulance through!"

"Don' t be ridiculous. Leo is not dead. You' re hysterical. I' m in a very important meeting with Dr. Ramirez. We' re discussing my fertility options. Chad and I are planning for our future, a new family."

A new family. To replace the one she destroyed.

A nearby doctor, an older woman with tired eyes, overheard. Her face tightened with disgust.

"Let that ambulance through now!" she snapped at Victoria' s security chief. "Or I' ll have you all arrested for obstruction."

The security guards hesitated, then stepped aside.

The ambulance finally pulled up to the ER doors.

As they wheeled Leo' s gurney past, I caught a glimpse through a nearby private room window.

Victoria, radiant, holding Chad' s hand, smiling up at a doctor in a white coat.

Doting on him.

The ER was a sterile, cold place.

A young doctor, his face pale, came to talk to me.

"Mr. Sterling, I... I' m so sorry. Your son... Leo... he was dead on arrival. The injuries... they were... catastrophic."

He detailed the damage. The sheer number of penetrating wounds.

"One of the spikes... it went directly through his heart. The suffering... it would have been unimaginable."

My knees buckled. A nurse helped me to a chair.

Unimaginable. My boy.

Then Chad appeared.

His face a mask of false concern.

"Michael, I am so, so sorry about this. Victoria is devastated. We both are. This is a terrible tragedy."

He put a hand on my shoulder. I wanted to rip it off.

"Listen," he said, his voice low, conspiratorial. "I' ve made some calls. I know people. I' ve arranged for world-class specialists. They' re flying in. They' re going to try a new experimental procedure. There' s a chance, Michael. A slim chance, but a chance to save Leo."

Save Leo? He was dead. The doctor just said so.

But a sliver. A desperate, insane sliver of hope.

What if?

"What... what kind of procedure?"

"It' s very advanced. They need to work fast. They' re setting up in an OR now. You need to sign the consent forms."

He produced a tablet, a document already loaded.

I couldn' t read it. The words swam.

Hope. Or was it just more of their cruelty?

But what if it was real?

I signed. My hand trembled so hard the signature was a scrawl.

"They' ll take good care of him, Michael," Chad said, patting my shoulder again.

He walked away, whistling softly.

I sat there, numb, waiting.

For a miracle.

Or for the final nail in my coffin.