Chapter 8 - THE CHOICE ISABELLA NEVER WANTED TO MAKE
Gabriel took the bracelet from Meredith's hand.
“Do not release?”
Meredith looked at him.
“Isabella requested that Lily remain under restricted visitor access.”
“Why?”
“Because she was afraid.”
“Of me?”
Meredith didn't answer.
Gabriel examined the bracelet.
The hospital's printed information looked authentic.
But the handwritten warning had no initials, date, or accompanying authorization.
He passed it to Beatrice.
“Have the hospital verify this.”
Meredith looked annoyed.
“You're refusing to accept anything that contradicts your version.”
“No,” Gabriel replied. “I'm refusing to mistake an accusation for proof.”
Robert Hale called a recess.
The sale vote was postponed until the following afternoon.
Gabriel left the boardroom and went directly to the hospital.
Isabella was sitting upright when he entered.
Lily had fallen asleep in Rose's arms nearby.
Gabriel approached the bed.
“Meredith showed the board something today.”
Isabella watched him carefully.
“A statement?”
He nodded.
Her face changed.
“She kept it.”
“You signed it?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel sat down.
For a moment, he couldn't find the words.
“Why?”
Isabella looked toward Lily.
“Because our daughter was two days old.”
Gabriel waited.
“She had trouble feeding. The doctors were monitoring her breathing. I was exhausted, and Meredith kept telling me the hospital would stop providing the special assistance arranged through the foundation if I created trouble.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“She threatened Lily's care?”
“She said the funding could disappear.”
“Isabella, hospitals don't just abandon newborns because someone makes a complaint.”
“I know that now.”
Her voice broke.
“But I was frightened, Gabriel. I had barely slept. I didn't understand what assistance was covered, what bills I would owe, or where we'd live.”
She wiped her eyes.
“Meredith brought me a form. She said it would keep our location private while she arranged safe housing.”
“And the part about me?”
“I agreed that my address could be kept private temporarily.”
Gabriel looked confused.
“Then why does the form say you didn't want contact?”
Isabella closed her eyes.
“That wasn't how she explained it.”
He gently placed the page beside her.
Isabella examined it.
Her signature was genuine.
But the wording above it was different from the copy she remembered signing.
“I don't know when those sentences were added,” she whispered.
Gabriel studied the page.
There was no way to prove the alteration simply by looking.
But it explained why Meredith had kept the document hidden for five years.
“I should have come for you,” Gabriel said.
Isabella shook her head.
“You tried. Meredith made sure neither of us knew it.”
“I should have questioned her.”
“Yes,” Isabella replied.
The honesty hurt.
But he didn't argue.
“I trusted her more than I trusted you,” he admitted.
Isabella's eyes filled.
“And I let fear convince me you didn't love us anymore.”
They sat quietly.
Then Gabriel reached toward her.
“I can't fix five years in one day.”
“No.”
“But I can stop letting her control what happens next.”
Isabella placed her hand in his.
“Then start with the people at Harbor House.”
Gabriel looked surprised.
“You know about that?”
“I know some of the residents. I taught piano there before Lily was born.”
She smiled faintly.
“There's a woman named Mrs. Delaney. She keeps her late husband's photograph beside her window. And a retired bus driver named Walter who brings cookies to the children.”
Gabriel listened.
“They're not just numbers on a balance sheet,” Isabella said.
“I know.”
“Then don't let Meredith use them to hide what she did.”
Gabriel nodded.
That afternoon, Beatrice obtained the relevant historical records directly from the hospital with Isabella's written authorization.
A retired maternity nurse named Lorraine Price agreed to review the records with the hospital's compliance officer.
Lorraine remembered Isabella.
She remembered the baby.
And she remembered Meredith Shaw.
“She told us she was the family's representative,” Lorraine said.
“Did Gabriel ever visit?” Beatrice asked.
Lorraine hesitated.
“A gentleman came asking for Ms. Bennett and the baby. He was told the patient had requested privacy.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“Do you remember who gave that instruction?”
Lorraine pointed toward the visitor communication log.
“Meredith Shaw.”
Beatrice examined the original entry.
There was more.
A handwritten notation recorded that the gentleman had asked to leave a message.
The message was never entered into Isabella's patient file.
Gabriel looked at the time.
He had been at the hospital.
He had come.
Lorraine studied his face.
“You were the gentleman, weren't you?”
Gabriel nodded.
His eyes filled with tears.
“I waited there for almost two hours.”
Lorraine looked devastated.
“I wish someone had told me.”
Beatrice turned another page.
The archive showed that Meredith had requested copies of both the patient's discharge information and the newborn's visitor restrictions.
The hospital's compliance officer agreed to preserve the records for investigation.
It didn't prove everything.
But it destroyed Meredith's claim that Gabriel had never tried to reach them.
Then Beatrice found a second connection.
North Point's largest unexplained payment had gone to a company that ultimately benefited Thomas Shaw.
The same company was positioned to receive a lucrative contract from the proposed Harbor House sale.
Gabriel finally understood why Meredith was desperate to force the transaction through.
Before he could speak, Dr. Patel entered the consultation room.
“Gabriel, I need you upstairs.”
He stood immediately.
“Isabella?”
“Her heart function has deteriorated. The surgical team believes we need to proceed sooner than planned.”
Gabriel looked toward the clock.
The board would vote in less than twenty-four hours.
He could protect the truth, the foundation, and the families at Harbor House.
But the woman he loved was being prepared for a dangerous operation.
He turned toward Beatrice.
“Take everything to Robert. Don't let them vote without seeing it.”
Then he ran toward the elevators.
When he reached Isabella's room, the nurses were preparing to move her.
She looked at him.
“Gabriel?”
He took her hand.
“I'm here.”
Her eyes filled.
“If something happens—”
“Don't.”
“Listen to me.”
He leaned closer.
Isabella looked toward Lily's drawing on the bedside table.
“Please don't let her grow up believing she's hard to love.”
Gabriel pressed her hand to his cheek.
“She'll never believe that again.”
The surgical team began moving the bed.
Gabriel walked beside her until the doors opened.
And just before she disappeared, Isabella whispered the words he had waited five years to hear.
May you like
“I never stopped loving you.”
Then the operating-room doors closed between them.
