The Director Called Her His Niece
Chapter 01 - The Director Called Her His Niece
Grace Bennett lay on the polished hospital floor beside the bed she had been assigned only an hour earlier.
She was seven months pregnant, exhausted, and still wearing the pale blue gown a nurse had given her after the examination. One hand protected her stomach. The other remained closed around a thin silver bracelet.
Victoria Sloan stood above her in a black leather coat and burgundy blouse.
Her pointed boot rested on the edge of Grace’s blanket, keeping the fabric pinned beneath her so she could not rise without pulling against it.
“Give me the bracelet,” Victoria said.
“It belonged to my mother.”
“It belongs to this hospital.”
Victoria had once been Daniel Hale’s lover. Now she chaired the private board controlling Saint Alden Medical Center, the hospital Daniel’s investment company was preparing to purchase.
For months, Victoria had told Daniel that Grace was unstable, jealous, and threatened by their business relationship.
That morning, she brought an annulment agreement to Grace’s room.
Grace refused to sign.
Victoria took her phone, dismissed the nurse, and tried to remove the bracelet herself.
The door opened.
Daniel entered wearing a dark coat over a gray turtleneck. His expression changed when he saw his wife on the floor.
“Step away from her.”
Victoria lifted her boot and turned toward him.
“She attacked me. I was trying to stop her from hurting the baby.”
Grace stared at her.
Daniel crossed the room and knelt beside his wife.
“Are you hurt?”
“My back is sore. The baby is moving.”
He reached for the call button.
Victoria blocked him.
“If you involve staff, the acquisition collapses. She came here under a false name.”
A second door opened behind them.
Dr. Samuel Bennett, director of Saint Alden, entered with two nurses and hospital security.
He looked first at Grace.
Then at the bracelet in her hand.
The color left his face.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mother gave it to me.”
Samuel stepped closer, trembling.
Inside the bracelet was a crescent moon surrounding the letter B.
His sister Elise had designed it before disappearing twenty-eight years earlier.
Samuel looked at Daniel.
“This woman is not an intruder.”
He turned back to Grace.
“She is my sister’s daughter.”
May you like
Victoria stopped breathing.
The hospital director had just identified the pregnant woman she tried to remove as the missing heir to the institution itself.
