CHAPTER 1: THE HEARTBEAT THAT DISAPPEARED

The room exploded into motion.

One second Ethan was staring at the monitor.

The next, every nurse in Labor and Delivery was moving at once.

"Fetal heart rate dropping!"

"Seventy-eight and falling!"

"Get Obstetrics in here NOW!"

The monitor's steady rhythm had become jagged.

Erratic.

Dangerous.

Panic slammed through Chloe harder than any contraction.

"No."

The word escaped her lips before she could stop it.

No.

Not her baby.

Anything but her baby.

Ethan was already at the bedside.

His expression had transformed completely.

The shock of discovering he was a father vanished beneath years of emergency medicine.

"Chloe, listen carefully."

His voice was calm.

Too calm.

The kind of calm doctors use when things are very bad.

"The umbilical cord may be compressed."

"May be?" Chloe gasped.

Another contraction tore through her.

Ethan looked at the monitor again.

His jaw tightened.

"We don't have much time."

The room went silent.

Everyone understood what he wasn't saying.

The baby's oxygen supply was failing.

Linda squeezed Chloe's shoulder.

"Sweetheart, we need to move fast."

Fear flooded Chloe's chest.

For nine months she had carried this child alone.

Nine months of morning sickness.

Nine months of ultrasounds.

Nine months of wondering if she'd made the right decision by keeping Ethan in the dark.

None of that mattered now.

Only one thing mattered.

Saving her baby.

Ethan met her eyes.

For the first time since their divorce, every wall between them disappeared.

"I can save our child."

Our child.

The words hit both of them.

Neither corrected it.

"Trust me."

The monitor dropped again.

Seventy-two.

Sixty-nine.

Chloe nodded.

And Ethan hit the emergency button.

"Prepare OR Two."

"Emergency C-section."

"Now."