Chapter 9 - Five Little ReasonsThree months later, all five girls came home.
Chief of obstetric anesthesia.
Respected.
Decorated.
Sixty-one years old.
He had been present during Charlotte’s emergency delivery.
His signature appeared twice in her medication record.
Once on the official chart.
Once on an internal pharmacy request that had never been added to the medical file.
The second request involved the anticoagulant.
Sebastian wanted him arrested immediately.
Prosecutors wanted proof.
Malcolm claimed the signature had been forged.
Charlotte’s surgery had involved dozens of clinicians.
Anyone could have accessed the system.
Then Naomi noticed something.
“Look at the timestamp.”
Sebastian did.
The anticoagulant request was entered at 8:42 p.m.
Charlotte’s emergency began at 8:57.
Fifteen minutes later.
“Someone ordered it before she deteriorated,” Naomi said.
Sebastian felt sick.
Her crisis might not have been natural.
The medication could have been part of what caused it.
Investigators reviewed surveillance.
Malcolm entered the medication room at 8:39.
He exited at 8:44 carrying a sealed syringe tray.
That was enough for a warrant.
When police arrived at Malcolm’s home, he was gone.
A letter remained on his desk.
It blamed Charles Mercer.
Malcolm claimed Charles had threatened his family.
But one sentence bothered Naomi.
I never intended for Charlotte to die.
“If he gave her that drug,” Sebastian said, “how could he not intend it?”
Naomi reread the letter.
“Maybe he intended something else.”
Dr. Patel reviewed the case.
A controlled dose could trigger complications without necessarily killing Charlotte.
An emergency might force early delivery.
Why force early delivery?
Trust timing.
Charlotte’s shares could not transfer until the babies were born.
Charles needed the children legally alive.
Then he could manipulate succession.
Charlotte had been forced into premature labor conditions so the trust structure would activate before she exposed the scheme.
But the hemorrhage became catastrophic.
She died.
Sebastian sat alone in the hospital chapel after hearing that conclusion.
For weeks, he had replayed Charlotte’s last day.
Her breakfast.
Her phone call.
The kiss he gave her before flying to Chicago for a meeting.
“I’ll be back tonight,” he had said.
She smiled.
“Bring cheesecake.”
He never returned in time.
Charlotte died before his plane landed.
Naomi found him in the chapel.
She sat beside him.
“I chose a meeting.”
“You chose what you believed was an ordinary workday.”
“I should have stayed.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I keep hearing that.”
He looked at her.
“Daniel didn’t know. Arthur didn’t know. I didn’t know. At some point, ignorance becomes negligence.”
Naomi considered that.
“Yes.”
He seemed surprised.
She continued.
“But punishment and responsibility aren’t always the same.”
Sebastian looked toward the cross at the front of the chapel.
“I spent years being proud that Charlotte never needed anything from me.”
Naomi listened.
“She had her foundation. Her friends. Her projects. I thought giving her independence made me a good husband.”
“Maybe it did.”
“I also used it as permission not to notice.”
That truth hurt more.
Naomi touched his hand.
“You notice now.”
He looked at her.
“Too late for Charlotte.”
“Not for her daughters.”
That became the turning point.
Sebastian stopped treating the investigation as revenge.
He began treating his daughters as his actual life.
He learned Rebecca hated cold bottles.
Grace sneezed twice before falling asleep.
Sophie made a tiny squeaking sound when hungry.
Claire calmed when someone hummed.
Lily preferred sleeping with her head turned left.
He changed diapers badly.
Naomi laughed at him.
He learned.
He attended feedings.
He slept at the hospital.
He stopped taking corporate calls unless necessary.
Daniel resigned from Whitmore Global from his hospital room and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Arthur surrendered control of the foundation.
Sebastian placed all family charitable assets into independent oversight.
And Naomi received an offer from St. Catherine’s.
Dr. Patel handed her the envelope.
“What’s this?”
“Read it.”
A formal invitation.
Return-to-practice training.
Full tuition.
A pathway to reinstatement as a neonatal nurse.
Naomi stared.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Her hands trembled.
“I haven’t practiced in twelve years.”
“You’ve practiced every night for seven weeks.”
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
Dr. Patel smiled.
“It was harder.”
She looked toward Sebastian.
“Did you do this?”
“No.”
He raised both hands.
“I wanted to. Dr. Patel beat me to it.”
Naomi folded the letter.
“I’ll think about it.”
Later that evening, Lily’s oxygen alarm sounded.
Naomi froze.
For a fraction of a second, she was no longer in St. Catherine’s.
She was twenty-six.
Maya was dying.
A monitor screamed.
Her body locked.
Sebastian saw it.
He stepped toward Lily.
“What do I do?”
Naomi blinked.
“Naomi.”
She looked at him.
“What do I do?”
The question grounded her.
“Check her position.”
He adjusted Lily.
“Then?”
“Stimulate her foot.”
He did.
Lily stirred.
The oxygen reading climbed.
Naomi breathed again.
Sebastian looked at her.
“You did it.”
“No.”
“You told me how.”
“That’s different.”
“Maybe.”
He smiled.
“But you stayed.”
Naomi looked down at the reinstatement letter.
For the first time, she imagined saying yes.
Then Sebastian’s phone rang.
Federal investigators had found Malcolm Reese.
He was at a small airfield in Vermont.
Preparing to leave the country.
He surrendered without resistance.
During questioning, Malcolm confirmed Charles’s plan.
But he also revealed something nobody expected.
Charlotte had known she was in danger before entering the hospital.
She had secretly recorded a final video on her phone.
A video police had recovered from an encrypted cloud account.
It was addressed to Sebastian.
He watched it alone.
Charlotte appeared pregnant, tired, beautiful.
“If you’re watching this,” she said, “I was right to be afraid.”
Sebastian covered his mouth.
“I need you to understand something. Whatever happens, do not turn our daughters into monuments to me.”
His eyes filled.
“They are not proof of what you lost. They are five separate little people who will need a father more than they need a fortune.”
Sebastian began crying.
Charlotte smiled from the screen.
“And if Naomi Brooks is there, listen to her. I think she may be your sister.”
Sebastian laughed through tears.
Of course Charlotte had known.
“She doesn’t know yet,” Charlotte continued. “Neither do you. Your father confirmed enough without realizing what I was asking.”
Then Charlotte’s expression softened.
“Sebastian, you have spent your whole life being afraid that love makes people weak.”
She touched her belly.
“It doesn’t.”
A pause.
“Love gives people something worth becoming brave for.”
The video ended.
Sebastian remained seated for a long time.
Then he walked into the neonatal ward.
Naomi looked up.
“You okay?”
“No.”
He wiped his eyes.
“But I think I will be.”
He handed her the phone.
“She left something for you too.”
Naomi pressed play.
Charlotte’s final message to Naomi was shorter.
“Stop punishing yourself for surviving Maya.”
Naomi’s hand covered her mouth.
“You couldn’t save your daughter. But that does not mean you failed every child forever.”
Charlotte smiled.
“And if Sebastian acts unbearable, remind him you’re older.”
Naomi laughed and cried at once.
Sebastian frowned.
“You’re older?”
“By fourteen months.”
“That seems unlikely.”
“DNA does not care about your ego.”
May you like
For the first time since Charlotte died, Sebastian laughed without guilt.
And in that small hospital room, surrounded by five sleeping babies, something broken inside both of them began to heal.
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