Chapter 4 - The Speed of Blood
Noah helped lift Elena onto the narrow gurney, locking his hand over her cold, clammy fingers.
"Sir, you need to step back so we can strap her down!" the paramedic shouted over the screaming telemetry monitor.
"I'm her husband, I'm not leaving her side," Noah responded with an intensity that brooked no argument.
They wheeled the stretcher at a full sprint across the sticky ballroom floor, leaving trails of red through white frosting.
Victoria stepped directly into the path of the gurney, crossing her frosting-smeared arms over her chest.
"This is private property, and nobody leaves until my personal physician examines her," Victoria declared with sneering arrogance.
The lead paramedic didn't even slow down, using the steel front bumper of the gurney to force Victoria aside.
The billionaire heiress stumbled into the arms of her private security guards, screeching in indignation.
"You are terminated! All of you will lose your licenses by tomorrow morning!" Victoria screamed after them.
Noah ignored the threats, his entire world narrowing to the erratic beep of the portable heart monitor beside Elena’s head.
They burst through the heavy glass doors into the chilly night air, where the ambulance was parked with its rear doors wide open.
Noah climbed into the narrow back of the ambulance behind the medics, pulling Elena’s limp hand against his chest.
The doors slammed shut, cutting off the chaotic sounds of the villa’s furious elite.
The vehicle accelerated violently down the winding driveway, its sirens deafening as it tore into the darkness.
Inside the tight cabin, the female paramedic ripped open an emergency trauma pack, applying pressure to Elena’s split scalp.
"Fetal heart rate is dropping fast, eighty beats per minute and declining," the second medic warned, monitoring the ultrasound wand.
"Elena, fight it," Noah whispered into her ear, tears finally slipping past his lashes and mixing with her blood.
"You have to stay for our daughter, Elena, do you hear me?" Noah pleaded, his voice breaking.
Elena’s lips moved faintly, but no sound came out except a wet, agonizing gasp.
The monitor sounded a long, piercing alarm as the line measuring her pulse flattened into erratic, spiky waves.
"She’s seizing!" the medic yelled, grabbing an oxygen mask and forcing it over Elena’s pale nose and mouth.
Elena’s pregnant body convulsed violently on the stretcher, her spine arching against the restraining straps.
Noah held her trembling shoulders down with gentle firmness, shielding her head from banging against the ambulance wall.
"Administering four milligrams of midazolam right now!" the paramedic called out, sliding the needle into Elena’s IV port.
Through the tinted rear window, Noah noticed a pair of high-beam headlights following aggressively close behind the ambulance.
It was a sleek black SUV bearing the private crest of the Hart Corporation, tailgating the emergency vehicle at ninety miles per hour.
Victoria Hart was not calling a doctor; she was dispatching her fixers to ensure the story never reached the hospital doors.
Noah clenched his bloody fists, staring back at the pursuing black vehicle with cold, unrelenting vengeance in his soul.
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"Driver, we’ve got a tail trying to run us off the road!" Noah shouted through the partition.
The paramedic looked up, her face pale as the heavy black SUV tapped the rear bumper of the ambulance with a sickening metallic crunch.
