Chapter 3 - THE ALERT
Olivia Mercer did not wait for a second terrible second.
She dove.
Hands grabbed Savannah under the arms. The world turned into white light, chlorine, screaming voices, and concrete scraping against wet skin as Olivia dragged her onto the pool deck.
“Savannah! Stay with me!”
Someone shouted for an ambulance.
Patricia’s voice cut through it all.
“She slipped!”
Brianna clutched her own stomach and whispered, “Maybe now she’ll learn to share.”
Olivia turned on her so violently that Brianna took a step back.
“Are you insane? She’s pregnant!”
Savannah coughed water and tried to breathe. She couldn’t tell where the pain ended and the fear began.
Then everything went darker.
When she opened her eyes again, fluorescent lights hovered above her. A fetal monitor beeped. A nurse adjusted an IV.
Savannah’s first movement was toward her belly.
“My baby.”
The nurse leaned close.
“The baby has a heartbeat. We’re monitoring for placental injury and contractions. You need to stay calm.”
Savannah wanted to laugh at the impossibility of that.
Olivia stood near the door, hair still damp, hospital badge already clipped on even though she wasn’t working.
“You scared the hell out of me.”
“What happened?”
“You were out for maybe thirty seconds. Ambulance got you here fast.”
Savannah swallowed.
“My mother hit me.”
“I know.”
“My father—”
Olivia’s face hardened.
“I heard him.”
Before Savannah could speak again, her phone buzzed on the bedside tray.
FRAUD ALERT:
Transfer request initiated from account ending 8442.
Amount: $18,000.
Approve or deny.
Savannah stared.
That was the baby fund.
Someone had tried to move every dollar while she was unconscious.
“Olivia.”
“What?”
Savannah handed her the phone.
Olivia’s expression changed from concern to fury.
“Who has access?”
“My dad helped open it after Grandma died. He said it was easier when I was younger.”
“Can he move money?”
“I thought he could only view it.”
Another message arrived before she could think.
Transfer request canceled due to failed secondary verification.
Then a third:
Account temporarily locked pending review.
Savannah looked up at Olivia.
“They did it in the hospital.”
Olivia exhaled sharply.
“Call the bank.”
Savannah did. After seven agonizing minutes and three security questions, a fraud representative told her a transfer had been initiated from a family-linked device authorized years ago under a parental oversight setting that should have been removed long before.
The representative also told her something worse.
“The account is now under temporary administrative hold because another authorized party disputed intended ownership.”
“Another authorized party” meant Robert.
Savannah closed her eyes.
Her mother had shoved her into a pool.
Her father had frozen her baby’s money while she was on fetal monitoring.
Then the doctor walked in.
He studied the screen for a long time.
Finally he said, “Savannah, I need you to understand this clearly. Your son is alive. But the trauma caused contractions. If they continue, we may be delivering early.”
At the same moment her phone lit up again.
Incoming call: Patricia.
Savannah let it ring.
May you like
Then a text arrived:
You made a scene. Call me before you ruin your sister’s life.
