Part 2
Part 2 · 2 min read ·
Frank didn't answer her. He stepped closer to my bed, still looking directly at me.
“Hold on,” he said to the other officers.
The room seemed to go quiet.
Frank looked at me once more, as if making absolutely certain he wasn't mistaken.
Then he addressed me by the title Margot had spent years insisting I could never hold.
“Your Honor... Judge Hale?”
Margot went completely still.
For one suspended second, nobody moved.
Margot stared at him.
Then she looked at me, a short, disbelieving laugh escaping her lips.
“I’m sorry,” she said sharply. “What did you just call her?”
Frank didn’t answer her.
He stepped forward, his expression hardening as he took in my swollen cheek, the bloodless pallor of my face, and the newborn screaming in Margot’s arms.
“Judge Hale,” he said again, more firmly this time. “Are you injured beyond your surgical incision?”
Margot’s mouth fell open.
“Judge?”
I swallowed, fighting through the dizziness.
“Frank, please get my son back into his bassinet and call the attending physician. I need an immediate medical assessment.”
“Understood, Your Honor.”
He turned toward the nearest security officer.
“Take custody of the situation. The infant is to be returned to his mother immediately. Nobody leaves this room until the responding supervisor has documented what happened.”
Margot pulled Owen closer to her chest.
“Absolutely not!”
The security officers stopped several feet away.
“He belongs to my family!” she screamed. “My daughter has been waiting years for a child! This woman has two babies. She can spare one!”
Frank stared at her as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Ma’am, put the infant down.”
“You don’t understand. Bridget is his aunt!”
“Then she can be his aunt without taking him from his mother.”
Margot’s face flushed crimson.
“She has signed no adoption papers because she has been manipulated by this woman! I’m correcting a terrible mistake!”
I gripped the edge of the mattress.
“Those papers were never signed. I never consented to an adoption, and I will not surrender either of my children.”
Margot whipped around.
“Be quiet!”
She pointed at me with one hand while still holding Owen with the other.
“You’ve spent years pretending to be someone important. You’re nothing but an unemployed lawyer who married my son!”
Frank’s expression changed.
“Ma’am, you need to stop speaking and follow instructions.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“No,” he replied. “But I know who she is.”
He gestured toward me.
“And at this moment, she is a recovering surgical patient whose newborn child was removed from his bassinet without her permission.”
Margot went completely still.
For the first time since she had entered my room, she seemed to realize that the people around her weren’t going to obey simply because she shouted the loudest.
A nurse rushed in, followed by a physician.
The doctor took one look at me and immediately approached the bed.
“Mrs. Whitlock, can you hear me clearly?”
“Yes.”
“Are you feeling faint?”
“Yes. And my abdomen hurts more than it did before.”
“Don’t try to sit up. We’re going to assess you right now.”
He glanced at my cheek.
“Who struck you?”
I looked toward Margot.
“She did.”
Margot immediately protested.
“She attacked me first!”
Frank stepped between her and the bed.
“That’s enough.”