After The Don Left Me To Die I Chose Freedom Chapter 05
Luca spun around almost instantly.
“Grace!”
Mom panicked.
“Is the fever back? I told you she shouldn’t be out here in the wind!”
Dad’s voice was urgent: “Hurry—get Grace back to the hospital!”
I heard the frantic footsteps retreating, growing distant.
I tried desperately to strike the metal again.
But my hand wouldn’t rise.
They were gone.
The air in my chest drained away, bit by bit. The pain in my abdomen grew more and more distant.
One last time, my lips moved, forming a soundless cry.
“Baby, I’m sorry.”
Then I closed my eyes for good.
That night, the hospital room was warm.
The whole family was gathered around Grace.
Grace sat propped up against the pillows, sipping hot soup.
On the television in the room, a breaking news bulletin interrupted the broadcast.
“An avalanche has struck North Ridge Mountain. Rescue workers have recovered an unconscious pregnant woman.”
“Based on identification found at the scene, the victim has been preliminarily identified as Emma Hale.”
In that instant, every sound in the room died.
The soup bowl slipped from Mom’s hands and shattered on the floor.
Dad’s hand jerked mid-peel, and the knife sliced into his finger.
Luca stood by the hospital bed, his entire body turned to stone.
Only Grace’s face betrayed a flicker—a faint, fleeting smile.
She was the first to react, scrambling to her feet in apparent alarm.
“That can’t be right. How could she really have been on the mountain…”
“Maybe it’s someone else with the same name?”
The words seemed to jolt everyone awake.
Mom lunged for the remote and cranked the volume to full.
On the news footage, the North Ridge rescue site filled the screen.
The anchor’s voice came through: “The victim was unconscious when found, with critically low body temperature. Authorities have contacted the family to come and confirm her identity.”
Luca snapped out of it like someone waking from a nightmare. He yanked out his phone and dialed my number.
Every single call: unreachable.
The color drained from his face, degree by degree. His fingers were shaking.
“That’s impossible. She can’t be hurt.”
“Emma makes a scene about everything. There’s no way she’s actually…”
The room was silent as a grave.
Mom clamped her hand over her mouth, and the tears came all at once.
Dad staggered, catching himself against the wall to keep from collapsing.
Luca bolted out of the room like a man possessed.
“I need to see for myself. I won’t believe it until I see it.”
By the time they reached the hospital, the doctors and police were already waiting.
Luca stood at the entrance to the trauma bay, but his feet refused to cross the threshold.
He had seen countless scenes of carnage and death. But in that moment, he couldn’t find the courage to push open that door.
In the end, it was Dad who spoke, his voice barely holding together: “Open it.”
The white sheet was pulled back, slowly revealing my face.
Fine crystals of frost still clung to my eyelashes. My lips were blue-purple. My skin was as white as snow.
Mom took one look and threw herself at me with a scream.
“Emma! My baby girl!”
She reached out to touch my face, but the instant her fingers met my ice-cold skin, she broke down completely.
“How can you be this cold… you were always the one who hated the cold the most when you were little…”
Dad stood rooted in place, his lips trembling without pause.
He reached out a hand, then pulled it back.
Finally, he slapped himself across the face. Hard.
“I didn’t believe her. I’m the one who did this to her…”
“I’m her father. How could I not believe her…”
Luca walked toward me, one step at a time.
He stared at me, disbelief carved across his face.
“No. Emma, get up.”
“You’re the one who always fought back, aren’t you? Get up and yell at me.”
His voice shook more with every word.
“You said it hurt, didn’t you? Tell me now—where does it hurt? I’ll take you to a doctor. Just say something…”
No one answered him.
The doctor walked in with the report, his tone heavy.
“Emma Hale. Severe hypothermia. Her abdomen sustained significant compression and trauma. The fetus did not survive.”
The doctor paused, looking at them.
“When she was brought in, she had no voluntary responses. Her vitals were so faint she was nearly pronounced dead.”
“However, extreme hypothermia can suppress vital signs to near-undetectable levels. We’ve initiated rewarming and resuscitation protocols, but whether she’ll regain consciousness is still uncertain.”
“Based on what we observed at the scene, she did not lose consciousness immediately.”
“Nearly all of her fingernails were torn off. Her palms had multiple lacerations from metal. She had been digging through the snow the entire time, and she had been striking something to signal for help.”
“In other words, she was conscious through the pain for a very long time. She lost awareness gradually—from the hypothermia, the blood loss, and the suffocation.”
Luca’s eyes turned a terrifying shade of red. His head snapped up toward the doctor.
As if something had just hit him, his entire body swayed.
“I heard it… I heard those two thuds.”
“I almost went to look.”
But Grace had said she was dizzy.
So he believed her. He carried her back to the car and left me at the bottom of the snow.
He finally shattered, crying like a child.
“Emma, I’m sorry. I believe you now. Please wake up, okay?”
Mom collapsed at my side, sobbing until she nearly fainted.
“Emma, Mommy was wrong. Mommy shouldn’t have believed Grace. Mommy shouldn’t have yelled at you.”
“You’re my own flesh and blood…”
Dad wept, his voice wrecked beyond recognition.
“Emma, come back to us. Daddy will do whatever you say from now on…”
The room was nothing but weeping.
They finally believed me.
But it was too late.
My baby was gone. And the last shred of hope I’d held for them was gone too.