Chapter 14 - The Hospital Breach
Mara wanted Nathan nowhere near St. Agnes until a tactical team cleared the property.
Nathan argued for exactly forty seconds before Lily called from her hospital room.
Rosa had helped her use the bedside phone.
"Uncle Nathan?"
The fear in her voice ended the argument instantly.
"I'm here."
"The lights went out."
Nathan turned toward Dana.
"What lights?"
"Our room."
In the background, Nathan heard an alarm.
Not the security lockdown from before.
A fire alarm.
Rosa came onto the line.
"Nathan, the whole secure wing lost power for maybe ten seconds."
"Backup should be immediate."
"It wasn't."
Nathan's blood went cold.
"Where are the twins?"
"With us."
"Do not let anyone move them."
A male voice sounded faintly on Rosa's end.
"Ma'am, we need to evacuate."
Nathan stood so fast his chair fell backward.
"Rosa, who is that?"
"A firefighter."
"Ask for his hospital incident badge."
Rosa repeated the question.
Silence followed.
Then the phone hit something hard.
Lily screamed.
Nathan was already running.
Dana called hospital security while Mara called state police.
The secure pediatric wing had gone dark after someone manually disabled a transfer switch in the basement electrical room.
A fire alarm was triggered simultaneously on the fourth floor.
Three men wearing county fire jackets entered through an emergency stairwell during the confusion.
There was no fire.
Nathan reached the floor to find smoke from a discharged extinguisher filling the corridor.
Nurses were moving patients into protected rooms rather than evacuating because Melanie Cho had recognized the alarm pattern as suspicious.
Nathan heard Rosa shouting from Lily's room.
He ran toward it.
One fake firefighter lay on the floor clutching his knee.
Rosa stood over him holding a metal IV pole like a spear.
Nathan almost stopped in disbelief.
"Where are Lily and the babies?"
"Bathroom."
Rosa pointed.
"I locked them in with Nurse Greene."
Nathan opened the bathroom door.
Tessa Greene sat on the floor beside Lily while Owen and Ethan remained in portable bassinets.
Lily was crying silently.
The second she saw Nathan, she launched herself toward him despite the IV line in her arm.
He caught her carefully.
"You're okay."
"They said Daddy sent them."
Nathan's grip tightened around her.
"Daddy does not decide who comes near you anymore."
Mara entered with two officers.
"Where are the other two?"
Rosa pointed toward the service stairwell.
"Ran."
Mara spoke into her radio.
Nathan carried Lily back to the bed while security restored full power.
A nurse checked the twins.
Both remained stable.
Nathan looked at Rosa.
"What happened to him?"
He pointed at the man on the floor.
Rosa lifted the IV pole slightly.
"He slipped."
Tessa coughed to hide a laugh.
Even Mara's mouth twitched.
Then the moment disappeared.
The fake firefighter was identified as a private security contractor who had worked for North Cascade Consulting.
He refused to speak.
A real firefighter found a jammer in his pocket designed to block cell signals within a short radius.
Mara searched him and found a photograph of Lily.
On the back was a handwritten instruction.
Girl stays.
Take boys only.
Nathan stared at the words.
Dane had been telling the truth about at least one thing.
Marcus wanted the twins and did not care about Lily.
Mara photographed the note.
"This may connect directly to the trust."
Nathan looked at Lily, who was watching them from the bed.
He lowered his voice.
"Not here."
They moved into the hallway.
"Why the boys?" Nathan asked.
Mara considered it.
"If Marcus is their biological father, they inherit Sarah's reserve if she dies."
"And Lily does too."
"Unless someone proves she is not his and then tries to argue he should not control her share."
Nathan frowned.
"But she is still Sarah's biological child."
"Yes."
"The trust divides among Sarah's biological children, not Marcus's."
"Correct."
Nathan looked again at the instruction.
Girl stays.
Take boys only.
"Then this is not only about inheritance."
Mara nodded.
"There is something else about Lily."
Nathan thought of the paternity test.
"Maybe whoever her biological father is."
Before Mara could answer, Dana approached with a tablet.
"I found something in Lily's birth record."
Nathan looked at her.
"The paternity test?"
"More than that."
Dana opened a scanned consent form.
Sarah had requested the paternity test herself two days after Lily's birth.
The listed reason was not a custody dispute.
It was medical history.
A handwritten note beside it read, Biological father deceased.
Nathan felt a sharp ache.
"Who?"
Dana scrolled.
A second sealed page contained the name.
Daniel Cross.
Nathan stared at it.
He knew the name.
Daniel had been Sarah's closest friend in college.
He had died in a climbing accident eight months before Lily was born.
Nathan remembered Sarah mentioning Daniel years earlier, before Marcus.
He had never known they had been together.
"Marcus married Sarah knowing Lily was not his," Nathan said.
Mara looked at the timeline.
"Possibly."
"Then why put his name on the birth certificate?"
Dana answered.
"Washington law allows a spouse to be presumed parent in certain circumstances, and there may have been an acknowledgment as well."
Nathan looked through the glass at Lily.
"He used her when it benefited him."
Mara studied the note from the fake firefighter.
"And excluded her when it didn't."
A hospital security officer approached quickly.
"Detective Cole, we caught another man in the south stairwell."
Mara turned.
"One of the fake firefighters?"
"Yes."
"Name?"
"Aaron Ellis."
Nathan's entire body went rigid.
Mara moved immediately.
Ellis was brought to a secure interview room still wearing a fire jacket over civilian clothes.
His lower lip was split, and one wrist was swollen from falling during the chase.
Mara sat across from him while Nathan watched through one-way glass with Dana.
Ellis refused a lawyer for the moment because he insisted he had done nothing wrong.
"You entered a hospital in fake emergency gear during a deliberately triggered alarm," Mara said.
Ellis shrugged.
"I was told there was an evacuation."
"By whom?"
"Anonymous call."
"Convenient."
Mara placed the forged custody order on the table.
"You notarized Sarah Carter's trust amendment."
Ellis looked at it.
"I notarize lots of documents."
"Did Sarah sign this in front of you?"
"Yes."
Mara placed a photograph of Sarah's injuries beside it.
"When?"
Ellis named a date.
Mara slid over Sarah's hospital record from that date.
"Sarah was in an emergency room in Spokane for six hours when you claim she signed this two hundred miles away."
Ellis's face tightened.
"Records can be wrong."
Mara leaned back.
"So can alibis."
She placed a still image from Nathan's old gate camera on the table.
It showed Ellis escorting Sarah away in 2019.
"You knew her."
Ellis did not answer.
"You told Nathan the name Marcus Kane merely sounded familiar."
Silence.
"You lied on his porch."
Ellis smiled faintly.
"Maybe I forgot."
Mara placed a final photograph on the table.
It showed Ellis's truck abandoned near St. Agnes.
His smile vanished.
"Want to explain that?"
Ellis stared at the image.
"Truck was stolen."
"When did you report it?"
"I was going to."
"Before or after you broke into a hospital?"
Ellis leaned back.
"You have nothing."
Mara's voice became quiet.
"I have a five-year-old witness."
For the first time, Ellis looked nervous.
"A child?"
"Lily remembers you."
Nathan did not know whether that was true.
Mara was testing him.
Ellis's reaction gave her something.
"From the house?" he asked.
Mara did not blink.
"Which house?"
Ellis realized the mistake.
He stood abruptly.
"I want a lawyer."
Mara nodded.
"Good choice."
As officers led him out, Ellis looked toward the one-way glass as if he somehow knew Nathan stood behind it.
"You should ask your sister why she never told you what really happened to Daniel Cross."
Nathan stepped forward.
Ellis smiled.
"Marcus didn't just marry Sarah for money."
The door closed behind him.
Nathan turned to Dana.
"Daniel died in a climbing accident."
Dana's face was pale.
Mara entered the observation room.
"Maybe."
Nathan stared at her.
"What does that mean?"
Mara held up her phone.
"I just asked my team to pull the old death investigation."
"And?"
"Daniel Cross was climbing with one other person when he fell."
Nathan already knew the answer before she said it.
"Who?"
May you like
Mara looked at him.
"Marcus Kane."
