Chapter 2 - Lies and Consequences
The emergency room at St. Jude’s was a chaotic whirlwind of beeping monitors, hurried nurses, and the sharp smell of antiseptic. Grace was wheeled back almost immediately, triage prioritizing her condition with the urgency required for a high-risk multi-gestational pregnancy.
Rosa sat in the hard plastic waiting room chair, her damp clothes clinging to her skin, her arms still aching with a deep, vibrating tremor. The adrenaline had faded, leaving behind a profound exhaustion and a gnawing anxiety. She had sent Drew away, instructing him to tell Sterling that Grace had felt unwell and had gone to rest in her room, buying them time.
Ten minutes later, the automatic doors parted, and Sterling Lancaster strode in. He was a man of immense wealth and presence, his face usually a mask of composed authority, but now it was etched with raw fear. Drew must have alerted him after all.
"Rosa! Where is she? What happened?" Sterling demanded, his voice booming, causing heads to turn in the waiting room.
Rosa stood up slowly. "She’s in the back, Sterling. She had a... an accident by the pool house. A cable snapped."
Sterling’s face went pale. He grabbed Rosa’s arm. "Is she... are the babies?"
"They got her back quickly. She was conscious, she was talking, and she said the babies were moving," Rosa said, choosing her words carefully. She needed to tell him the truth, but not all of it, not here in the waiting room.
Before Sterling could respond, a doctor in blue scrubs approached them. "Mr. Lancaster? I’m Dr. Aris. You’re Grace’s husband?"
"Yes, yes. How is she? The quintuplets?" Sterling asked rapidly.
"Grace is stable. She’s shaken up, has some nasty bruising on her arms, and her blood pressure is dangerously high. We’re concerned about the stress to the uterus," Dr. Aris said, leading them toward a private consultation area. "Given her history of preterm labor risk and the nature of the fall—she managed to brace herself, which likely saved the pregnancy—we are admitting her for immediate observation."
"And the babies?" Sterling persisted.
"We’ve done initial ultrasounds. Miraculously, all five heartbeats are strong. There’s no sign of placental abruption at this stage, which is the biggest risk in a fall like that. However, with quintuplets, even a minor jolt can trigger labor. We need to keep her on strict bedrest, sedated to prevent contractions, for at least the next 72 hours. If we can get past that window without labor progressing, we’ll reassess."
Sterling exhaled, a sound that was half-choke. He leaned against the wall, closing his eyes for a moment. "Thank god."
Dr. Aris nodded and excused himself. Sterling turned to Rosa, his expression hardening. "A cable snapped, you said? That pool area was renovated six months ago. It should be pristine. How did a cable snap?"
Rosa took a deep breath. She couldn't lie to Sterling. He was a demanding man, but he loved his wife, and he deserved to know the truth about the woman who lived under his roof.
"I didn't see it snap, Sterling. I heard Grace scream. When I rounded the terrace, she was hanging from the cable, clinging to the pool house overhang. The cable fixture had pulled completely out of the wall."
Sterling frowned, processing this. "Okay. So it was faulty installation."
"I pulled her up," Rosa said quietly. "It was... it was very close. She almost went in."
"Thank you, Rosa. You saved her life. You know what that means to me, to us. I won't forget it." Sterling’s eyes were intense.
"Sterling," Rosa started, her heart pounding. "That’s not the whole story. When I was holding her... when I was screaming for help... your mother was on the balcony."
Sterling stared at her. "My mother? What did she do?"
"She watched," Rosa said, her voice barely above a whisper. "She stood there, Sterling. She didn't scream. She didn't run for help. She just watched. And when I begged her to call 911, she told me she had more important things to do than get wrinkles in her afternoon. She... she watched your wife and five unborn children dangle over the edge of a pool and smiled."
Silence descended on the hospital corridor, heavy and suffocating. Sterling’s face went through a gamut of emotions: confusion, disbelief, and finally, a cold, dark fury.
"Are you absolutely certain, Rosa?" he asked, his voice dangerously low.
"I would never lie about something like that, Sterling. Drew, the pool boy, was there too. He saw her." Rosa needed him to believe her.
Sterling stood up straighter, his jaw set in granite. "My mother is difficult, cold... but this? This is sociopathic. If what you are saying is true, Rosa..."
"It is true," she insisted.
"Then this changes everything," Sterling said. "I have tolerated her schemes, her manipulations, because she is my mother, and because this estate is her home. But if she actively sought to harm Grace and my children... she is done here."
May you like
He turned abruptly. "I’m going to see Grace. Do not mention this conversation to anyone. Not even to my mother when you return to the estate. I need to hear it from Grace’s lips, and then... I’ll handle Eleanor."
Rosa watched him walk away, a chill settling deep in her bones. She had dropped a metaphorical bomb on the Lancaster family. She knew that Eleanor Lancaster did not go down without a fight, and the fallout from this afternoon would likely shatter whatever fragile peace remained in the sprawling estate.
