Chapter 3 - The Search for Saint Jude
Within twenty minutes, Jason’s private Gulfstream jet was cleared for departure from Teterboro Airport.
He didn't return to his penthouse to pack. He didn't call his lawyers. He sat in the back of his armored Maybach with Liam on his left and Lucas on his right, their small hands securely clasped in his massive palms. Claire sat in the front seat, her laptop open as she coordinated with the top medical institutions in the country.
“Mr. Miller, I’ve tracked her,” Claire said, turning around with a somber expression. “Sarah Vance is currently admitted to the intensive care unit at the Rochester Medical Center, upstate. The facility is under-staffed, and according to the attending physician, she was placed on a ventilator three hours ago. Her prognosis is... hours, at best.”
Jason’s grip on the boys' hands tightened. “Call Dr. Robert Chen at New York Presbyterian. Tell him I am transferring fifty million dollars to his research foundation today if he can get his ECMO team onto a private transport to Rochester within the next thirty minutes. I don't care what the cost is. Bring her back.”
The flight upstate was a blur of gray clouds and silent tension. The twins, exhausted from their journey, fell asleep against Jason’s tailored cashmere coat, their small chests rising and falling in rhythm. For the first time in his thirty-eight years, Jason Miller didn't look at the stock tickers on the cabin screens. He looked at the reflection of his sons in the glass, wondering how a man could be so rich and yet so utterly bankrupt.
When the jet touched down in Rochester, a fleet of black SUVs was already waiting on the tarmac.
The hospital was a dreary, concrete building that smelled of floor wax and despair. Jason strode through the sliding doors, holding both boys in his arms. His security detail cleared the path as he bypassed the crowded waiting room and headed straight for the third-floor intensive care unit.
He found her behind a cracked glass partition.
Sarah looked frail, almost translucent, her beautiful brown hair gone, replaced by a soft knitted cap. A massive array of tubes and monitors surrounded her bed, their rhythmic clicking the only sound in the sterile room. A local doctor was standing over her, looking defeated as he adjusted the oxygen levels.
“Mommy!” Liam cried out, his voice breaking the heavy silence of the ward.
The doctor turned around, his expression hardening. “Sir, you can't be in here. This is a restricted area, and this patient is actively failing.”
“Move aside,” Jason said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
Before the doctor could protest, the double doors of the ICU swung open, and Dr. Robert Chen stepped through, flanked by four of the top thoracic specialists in the state, carrying mobile life-support equipment that cost more than the hospital's entire annual budget.
“Jason,” Dr. Chen said, stepping to the bedside and immediately checking Sarah’s vitals. “The localized tumor has caused a massive pleural effusion, compressing her right lung. The local team was preparing to let her go. But with the ECMO circuit, we can bypass her lungs entirely, allowing the tissue to rest while we initiate a high-dose targeted immunotherapy block.”
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“Can you save her, Robert?” Jason asked, his voice cracking as he looked at the woman who had once been his entire world.
Dr. Chen looked at the twins, who were staring at their mother with wide, terrified eyes. “It’s a miracle she survived this long, Jason. She was fighting for them. Now that they’re safe... we have a chance. But it’s going to be the hardest fight of her life.”
