The night before I gave birth, I overheard my husband secretly offer the doctor $500,000 to make sure I died during delivery so he could start a new life with his five-month-pregnant mistress. I pretended to be asleep—but by the next day, his plan had completely backfired.

Daniel admired him.

That should have bothered me.

I never understood why until now.

At three fifteen in the morning, my phone vibrated.

Laura.

I opened her message.

Do not consent to any procedure until we speak.

Police have been notified.

Ethan is with me.

You are not alone.

I stared at those last four words.

You are not alone.

My eyes filled.

For the first time all night, I could breathe.

Then another message arrived.

We need to move carefully because the recording includes an active threat.

Do exactly what hospital security and law enforcement instruct when they reach you.

I responded.

Daniel is here.

He thinks I’m asleep.

Laura wrote back.

Understood.

Keep your phone hidden.

Do not confront him.

I turned the screen off.

Then waited.

At five twenty, Daniel woke.

He stretched in the reclining chair near the window.

Then he smiled at me.

“Morning.”

I opened my eyes slowly.

“Morning.”

“How do you feel?”

“Terrible.”

He laughed.

“Almost there.”

Almost dead, I thought.

Instead, I smiled faintly.

“Almost.”

He walked to the bathroom.

I heard the shower.

My heart pounded.

I checked my phone.

One new message from Laura.

Detective will enter with hospital administrator around 6:10.

Act normal.

I looked at the clock.

Forty-eight minutes.

The longest forty-eight minutes of my life.

Daniel came out wearing a white shirt and dark trousers.

He looked like a man preparing for a business meeting.

Not the birth of his daughter.

Not the murder of his wife.

He adjusted his cuff.

“Your mom would have been so excited.”

I looked at him.

My mother had died three years earlier.

Daniel knew exactly how much that still hurt.