Too Late For Regret, Mr. Booth

urfaced through layers of fog to find herself staring at a ceiling that moved

ss. All three

ise tried to turn her head, but something held her

ong, slurred, her tongue too t

th, Mrs. Preston.

ubs, and then the lights changed. Not fluorescent anymore. Something harsher. Brigh

. The mask covered her nose and mouth, but her ey

ring anest

f Vance's gown, clinging with desperate strength. "Don't p

ay with mechanical preci

that numbed her fingers, her wrists, her shoulders. But her mind-her mind stayed a

Tugging. The obscene sensation of hands insi

: sil

d: si

Weak. Like a kitten me

ree. Get her to t

raints, her muscles screaming against the paralysis, and through the gap between bodies she saw-shadows. Movement

ght of routine, "twenty-three-forty. Male twin A. Male twin B.

e names she'd whispered to her belly for months-Jacob, she'd thought, for the s

o

r hands to wipe them. The warming unit beeped somewhere to her left, a steady rhythm that meant one chil

door sw

a cap, her eyes scanning the room with predatory assessment. She wal

e one?"

ce confirmed. "The

bove the baby's face. "She would have been

accelerated, frantic, and Vance glanced

The anesthesia d

it, her hand going to the pocket of her scrubs. "She wo

alarm s

hts that replaced the surgical white with strobing emergency color. The intercom crackled t

ace twist

e shouted, already moving toward the doo

ward Vance, a silent question passing between them before her composure cracked. "Damn it. Irma? Yes, there's a fire. I don't know. No

g unit to the spreading water from the overhead sprinklers, and then she too ran, leav

ken only by the alarm

it her

gave her something to focus on, something to climb toward. She bit again, harder, feeling

se. Elise wrenched one hand free, then the other. Her body screamed in protest. She didn't roll; she slid, a dead weight tumbling off the gurney with a sickening thud. The impact sent a fresh wave of agony throu

er body leaving a trail of red that the sprinklers began to dilute to pink. Three feet. Six feet. Her hand found

ing for breath through lungs that

she expected, lighter than air, lighter than hope, and she tucked her against her ch

or bur

against the emergency lighting, her face pale wi

She reached out, her blood-slick fingers closing around the nurse's ankle. "

e shifted. A memory surfaced-another night, another powerful family, another girl who had been silenced. Her own sister. The look in Elise's eyes was

or, she's a monster." She pointed down the hall. "Medical waste chute. It leads to

y m

e against the current, through a supply closet, down a maintenance stairwell that smelled of bleach and decay

Cold air hit her face, November in Manhattan, and Elise stum

the basement

ed around the baby-her only baby now, her only everything-and watched flames consume the building where her sons had b

er shoulder. "You need

She looked up at the young nurse, at the only person who'd shown her mercy in a ni

a'

ling the faint flutter of that tiny heart. "Her

e blood-soaked woman on the ground. At the i

s hand. "There's a clinic in Queens. St. Agnes. A

e two lives, and Elise Preston disappeared into the November night with her