Chapter 7 - The Arrest on the Marble Floor
The agonizing spasm ripped through my body with such ferocious intensity that my vision blurred into static.
My knees gave out completely, and I slid toward the polished floor, catching myself against the wooden bench with one arm.
A warm gush of fluid soaked through the fabric of my dress, pooling onto the linoleum beneath my feet.
“Mommy!” Leo shrieked in terror, throwing his small arms around my neck.
“Audrey! What’s wrong? Are the bad people hurting you again?”
“Bailiff, call an ambulance immediately!” Judge Norris yelled, abandoning all judicial protocol as she rushed down from the bench.
“Her water just broke! She’s going into emergency labor!”
Officer Davis was already barking frantic codes into his shoulder microphone before the judge had even reached the floor.
“Dispatch, this is Unit Four in Courtroom 4B, we have a medical emergency, female, thirty-four weeks pregnant, in active distress!”
The pain peaked again, rolling over me like a tidal wave of fire that stole the breath straight out of my lungs.
I leaned back against the mahogany railing, panting heavily, my hands clutching my belly where my daughter was fighting to arrive early.
Judge Norris dropped to her knees beside me, discarding her black robe onto the floor and folding it into a makeshift pillow beneath my head.
“Audrey, look at me,” Judge Norris said, her voice commanding yet extraordinarily gentle as she took my clammy hand.
“You are safe. The monsters are in chains. You focus on breathing, do you hear me?”
“Leo…” I gasped out, the room spinning wildly around me.
“Don't let them take Leo… please…”
Leo sat right beside my head, clutching his torn rabbit against his chest with one hand while using his other hand to wipe sweat from my forehead.
“I’m right here, Audrey,” Leo cried, his little voice trembling with fierce bravery.
“I won't leave you. I’m the big brother. I have to protect you and the baby.”
Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes as another crushing contraction gripped my uterus.
In the hallway outside, the muffled shouts of Julian and Clara being dragged past spectators echoed faintly through the walls.
Outside the courtroom doors, Julian was violently resisting the officers, his voice screaming through the marble corridor.
“Let me go! That’s my wife! That’s my child being born!” Julian yelled in hysterical, hypocritical panic.
“You forfeited that right the second you poured poison into her cup, Vance!” Detective Rivera’s voice boomed back from the corridor.
The sound of Julian’s body being slammed against the marble wall and the distinct clatter of leg shackles signaled the end of his resistance.
Within three minutes, the heavy oak doors burst open again, and four paramedics rushed inside pushing a bright yellow gurney.
“Clear the aisle!” the lead paramedic shouted, dropping his medical bags beside my trembling body.
“Blood pressure is dropping, pulse is one hundred and thirty, contractions are ninety seconds apart!” the female medic called out.
They worked with practiced, rapid efficiency, lifting my heavy, sweating body onto the gurney and securing the safety straps.
“Leo…” I cried out, reaching my arm into the air as they began wheeling me toward the exit.
“I’m coming, Audrey!” Leo shouted, running along the gurney while holding tightly onto my outstretched fingers.
“He cannot ride in the back of the ambulance, ma’am, it’s against protocol!” the paramedic stated urgently.
“He rides with her!” Judge Norris commanded, striding alongside the gurney with unyielding authority.
“I am the presiding family court judge of this county, and I am issuing an emergency transport order!”
“If that boy is separated from his mother for one second, I will hold this entire EMS department in contempt of court!”
The paramedic blinked in astonishment, quickly swallowing his objection.
“Yes, Your Honor! Hop in, little man!”
They loaded the gurney into the back of the ambulance, Leo scrambling up the metal step right behind me, his yellow cardigan flapping in the wind.
Judge Norris stood on the courthouse steps as the ambulance doors slammed shut, giving me a solemn, reassuring nod.
The sirens wailed to life, screaming through the streets of downtown Springfield as the vehicle lurched forward toward Mercy Hospital.
Inside the back, Leo never once let go of my trembling hand, squeezing with all the strength his six-year-old body possessed.
“You’re doing great, Audrey,” Leo whispered, repeating the exact words I had used when he broke his arm last summer.
“Just squeeze Barnaby if it hurts too much.”
May you like
He tucked the matted grey rabbit right under my trembling arm, resting his small head against my shoulder.
Another massive contraction seized my body, and the darkness of the hospital bay doors rushed up to meet us.
