Chapter 2 - The Owner of the Floor
The silence that fell over the NICU was so heavy you could hear the rhythmic, mechanical hum of the twins’ ventilators.
Dominic’s hand froze on the handle of the glass door. The smug, self-satisfied grin on his face faltered, replaced by a twitch of irritation. Beside him, Natalie stopped stroking the cashmere of my coat, her heavily lined eyes darting from Dominic to me.
"Your grandfather?" Dominic let out a sharp, mocking laugh, though it sounded forced this time. He turned around, adjusting the cuffs of his suit. "Audrey, the isolation is finally making you lose your mind. Your grandfather was a retired clerk from upstate who left you a twenty-thousand-dollar trust fund. What is he going to do? Come down here and yell at my legal team?"
"You never did look into the specifics of that trust, did you, Dominic?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, yet carrying a terrifying weight. I turned my head back toward the incubators, gently placing my gloved hand against the warm glass where my son, Liam, was sleeping. "You were so eager to see the meager balance I kept in our local checking account that you never bothered to ask what the name 'Aurelia' stood for."
Natalie's brow furrowed. She looked around the pristine, state-of-the-art neonatal unit—the private suites, the advanced medical tech, the marble accents in the family waiting room. "Dominic... what is she talking about?"
"She's bluffing," Dominic hissed, though a drop of sweat had begun to form near his temple. "She's trying to scare us so we don't file the papers today. Come on, let's go. Let the nurses handle her and her charity cases."
Before he could reach for the door again, the electronic lock on the NICU entrance clicked loudly. The indicator light flashed a bright, authoritative blue—a bypass code reserved only for executive override.
The double doors swung open.
Walking into the room was a man whose presence made the entire hospital hierarchy shift in an instant. Alistair Aurelia, the reclusive international real estate tycoon and philanthropist, stepped into the sterile light. He was eighty-two, but he stood over six feet tall, carrying a silver-headed cane that he didn't actually need for walking. Behind him stood the Chief of Medicine, Dr. Sterling, and four towering men in dark suits with earpieces.
Dominic’s jaw dropped so low it looked unhinged. As an owner of a mid-tier medical supply company, he had spent the last three years trying to secure a five-minute meeting with anyone on the Aurelia Group's procurement board. He knew Alistair’s face better than he knew his own ledger.
"Mr... Mr. Aurelia?" Dominic stammered, stepping forward and instinctively reaching out a hand. "Sir, I... I had no idea you were visiting the facility today. I'm Dominic Vale, CEO of Vale Medical Logistics—"
Alistair didn't even look at Dominic’s extended hand. He bypassed him entirely, his heavy leather shoes clicking firmly against the linoleum until he reached my side. The cold, unyielding titan of the business world instantly melted as he leaned down, kissing the top of my head.
"My brave girl," Alistair whispered, his voice thick with a rare emotion. He looked through the glass at Liam and Chloe, his eyes softening. "They have the Aurelia eyes, Audrey. They are fighters."
"They're doing well, Grandfather," I said, a solitary tear finally slipping down my cheek. "But they need a quiet environment. And we have some trash that needs to be removed from the room."
Alistair stood up straight, turning his gaze toward Dominic and Natalie. The warmth vanished instantly. The air in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.
"Dr. Sterling," Alistair said without breaking eye contact with Dominic. "Who authorized this man and his associate to enter a restricted, high-security neonatal suite with legal documents and a camera?"
May you like
Dr. Sterling, a renowned surgeon, looked as if he wanted the floor to swallow him whole. "Nobody, Mr. Aurelia. They must have bypassed the main desk under the pretense of being the children's legal guardians."
"Well, as of this exact second, their access is permanently revoked," Alistair declared. He looked at Dominic, his voice dropping to a low, rumbling growl. "Mr. Vale, you have exactly sixty seconds to get your mistress out of my granddaughter's sight. And if she doesn't take off my family's custom coat before she leaves this building, I will have the police arrest her for grand theft in the lobby."
