Chapter 5 - The Daughter He Had Not Earned
Jacqueline went into labor six weeks early.
It began during a meeting with the Lennox Trust attorneys.
She felt a sharp pain beneath her ribs, then another.
Within minutes, she was being rushed to St. Catherine’s Hospital.
Her sister, Naomi, stayed beside her.
Ambrose learned about it from a reporter.
He was sitting in a temporary office across town, reviewing legal notices, when an online alert appeared.
BLACKWELL’S ESTRANGED WIFE HOSPITALIZED DURING HIGH-RISK PREGNANCY.
He did not think.
He drove.
At the hospital, Naomi met him outside the maternity ward.
“You cannot go in,” she said.
Ambrose looked past her.
“Is Jacqueline okay?”
“She is scared.”
“Is the baby okay?”
“They do not know yet.”
Ambrose’s face tightened.
“I need to see her.”
Naomi stepped closer.
“You needed to see her months ago.”
He looked at the floor.
“I know.”
“No, you do not.”
Her voice trembled with anger.
“You do not know what it was like when she stopped sleeping because she thought you would come home. You do not know what it was like when she found out Cassandra was pregnant too. You do not know what it was like when she told me she was afraid your daughter would grow up believing she was not enough because her father never chose her mother.”
Ambrose’s eyes filled.
“I did not know Cassandra was pregnant.”
Naomi stared at him.
“She is not.”
He looked up.
“What?”
“Cassandra lied about that in an interview last month. She wanted attention.”
Ambrose felt sick.
He had destroyed his marriage for a woman who had used the possibility of a child as a way to keep him close.
But the pain that mattered was not his.
It was Jacqueline’s.
Hours passed.
At 3:18 in the morning, a nurse entered the waiting room.
“Mr. Blackwell?”
Ambrose stood.
“Yes.”
“Mrs. Vale has asked to see you.”
Jacqueline lay in a hospital bed, pale and exhausted.
A tiny newborn slept in a bassinet beside her.
Ambrose stopped at the door.
The baby had dark hair.
A small nose.
Tiny hands curled into fists.
“She is early,” Jacqueline whispered. “But she is stable.”
Ambrose looked at the child.
“What is her name?”
Jacqueline hesitated.
“Evelyn.”
He swallowed.
“Can I hold her?”
Jacqueline looked at him for a long time.
Then she said, “Not tonight.”
Ambrose nodded.
He did not argue.
He sat in the chair near the door.
For hours, he watched Jacqueline sleep and Evelyn breathe.
May you like
He had never felt less powerful.
And never more aware of what power had cost him.
