Chapter 5
The drive to the hospital was a blur.
My hands shook on the steering wheel.
My mind kept repeating the same words over and over.
Someone tried to kill my son.
And they framed me for it.
I burst into the NICU, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
Cameron was already there.
He was standing by Ethan's incubator, his body rigid with tension.
Two hospital security guards stood nearby.
And Sophie...
Sophie was standing a little apart, her face pale, her eyes wide with carefully manufactured shock.
She looked at me when I entered.
And I saw it.
The faintest glint of satisfaction in her eyes before she hid it behind a mask of concern.
"Amelia," Cameron said. His voice was raw.
"Is he okay?" I rushed to Ethan's side, pressing my hands against the glass.
"He's fine," one of the doctors said quickly. "Nurse Jenkins caught the discrepancy immediately. The order was reversed before any medication was administered. He's completely unharmed."
Relief flooded through me so strong my knees buckled.
Cameron caught my arm.
For a second, his touch was comforting.
Then he pulled away as if burned.
"What happened?" I asked, though I already knew.
"Someone entered a medication order into Ethan's chart," the head of security said. "A dangerously high dosage of a sedative. The order was timestamped forty minutes ago. And it was signed with your credentials, Dr. Grant."
"I didn't do it," I said immediately.
"We found your ID badge in the medication room," another security officer said. "It was used to access the system."
"My badge was stolen," I told them. "Or copied. I haven't been near the medication room today. I was at my apartment. I have phone records. I have receipts from the café down the street."
Sophie spoke up then, her voice trembling.
"Dr. Grant... I saw you earlier. Near the NICU. You looked... upset. You were muttering to yourself. I thought you were just worried about Ethan, but..."
She let her voice trail off.
She was good.
I had to give her that.
Cameron looked from her to me.
His face was a mask of confusion and pain.
"Amelia?" he whispered.
"You believe her?" My voice cracked. "After everything? You believe her over me?"
"I don't know what to believe!" he exploded. "One day you tell me she's a monster who threatened you. The next day there's an attempt on our son's life and all the evidence points to you! I'm drowning here, Amelia! I don't know which way is up!"
"She did this," I said, pointing at Sophie. "She's been planning this. She threatened me yesterday. I recorded her. I have proof."
Sophie gasped.
"You recorded me? That's illegal! And I never threatened you! You're the one who's been unstable! Everyone says so! Everyone knows how you were during labor—hysterical, violent! You broke a steel bed rail! You were out of control! Is it really so hard to believe that in a moment of weakness, you...?"
She didn't finish the sentence.
She didn't have to.
The implication hung in the air like poison gas.
That I had tried to kill my own son.
That the rumors were true.
That I was unstable.
Dangerous.
The security guards exchanged looks.
"Dr. Grant," the head of security said carefully. "We're going to need you to come with us. We need to ask you some questions. And until this is resolved... we're going to have to ask you not to visit the NICU."
The room tilted.
"You can't keep me from my son."
"For the safety of the patients," he said gently but firmly. "Until we clear this up."
I looked at Cameron.
I begged him with my eyes to see the truth.
To stand with me.
He looked away.
That was when my heart broke for the last time.
Not with a crack.
With a shattering.
I went with the security guards.
I answered their questions for hours.
I told them everything.
The delivery room betrayal.
Sophie's manipulations.
Her threat in my apartment.
The recording.
The rumors she had been spreading.
They listened.
They took notes.
But I saw the doubt in their eyes.
The story of a scorned, unstable wife was much easier to believe than the story of a brilliant, manipulative intern who had almost gotten away with murder.
They let me go eventually.
But the ban stood.
I couldn't see Ethan.
I sat in my car in the hospital parking lot and cried for the first time since the delivery room.
Not for Cameron.
Not for myself.
For my son, who was inside that building, alone, with the woman who had just tried to kill him and the father who couldn't see the truth right in front of his face.
I dried my tears eventually.
Sophie wanted me broken.
She wanted me defeated.
She wanted me gone.
She would get none of those things.
I called my lawyer first thing in the morning.
Then I called Nurse Marissa.
"I need you," I told her. "Now more than ever."
"I'm with you," she said without hesitation.
Then I called Cameron.
He answered on the third ring.
"Amelia," he said tiredly.
"She did this, Cameron," I said. "And you know it. Deep down, you know it. Every time something bad happens, who benefits? Who gains? Every time, it's her. Every time, I'm the one who looks worse. That's not a coincidence. That's a pattern."
He was silent for a long time.
"The recording," he said eventually. "You said you recorded her. Let me hear it."
My heart leaped.
It wasn't much.
But it was a start.
"I'll send it to you," I said. "But Cameron... if you listen to this and you still doubt me... then we really have nothing left to say to each other."
"I need to know," he whispered.
I sent the file.
And then I waited.
The longest three hours of my life.
He called back.
His voice was hollow.
"I heard it," he said.
"And?"
"And I've been a fool," he whispered. "The biggest fool who ever lived. I threw away my marriage. I almost killed my wife. I put my son in danger. All because I wanted to believe the pretty lie instead of the hard truth."
He made a sound that was half sob, half laugh.
"She played me perfectly. She told me exactly what I wanted to hear. She made me feel... important. Special. While you... you were always so strong. So capable. I started to resent it. And she exploited that. She twisted everything until I couldn't see straight."
He paused.
"What do we do now?"
"We," I repeated carefully.
"I know I don't deserve it," he said quickly. "I know I've lost every right to stand beside you. But she tried to kill our son, Amelia. And she's still in that hospital. She's still near him. I want to help you take her down. Whatever you need. Whatever I have to do. I'm in."
I thought about it.
I thought about all the betrayals.
All the pain.
But I also thought about Ethan.
And I thought about Sophie, who was still dangerous.
Still desperate.
Still free.
"Okay," I said slowly. "But things will never be the same between us. Never. This is for Ethan. Only for Ethan."
"Understood," he whispered.
"Then here's what we're going to do..."
We laid out the plan.
Cameron would go to Sophie.
He would pretend he still believed her.
He would tell her the recording was a fake.
That I was clearly unstable.
That he was going to file for full custody.
He would draw her out.
Make her bolder.
Make her confess.
And we would be ready.
It was dangerous.
Sophie was smart.
And she was ruthless.
But she was also arrogant.
And she wanted Cameron so badly she would make a mistake.
Cameron went to her that evening.
I watched from a distance as he approached her by the hospital parking garage.
She smiled when she saw him.
She reached for his hand.
He let her take it.
And I felt a coldness settle over me that had nothing to do with the evening air.
May you like
The trap was set.
Now we just had to wait for the snake to walk into it.
