No one answered immediately.

Cold fear spread through his chest.

“Tell me,” he said. “Tell me what happened to my child.”

General Bennett’s jaw tightened.

“My granddaughter was delivered by emergency surgery. She is alive.”

Ryan staggered back against his car. For one wild, shameful second, relief filled him.

Then the general continued.

“She is in critical condition.”

Ryan’s knees nearly failed.

“Critical?”

“She stopped breathing twice during the night.”

The words cut through the air.

Ryan gripped his car’s side mirror, suddenly seeing Claire as she had been that morning—pale, sweating, bent over in pain, whispering that something was wrong.

And he had laughed.

He had laughed and left.

Accountability Arrives

“I need to see them,” Ryan said. “I’m her husband.”

General Bennett’s expression did not change.

“No.”

Ryan looked up sharply.

“What do you mean, no?”

“You will not go near my daughter or granddaughter until Claire wakes up and decides whether she wants to see you.”

“That’s my child.”

“That child almost lost her mother because of you.”

Ryan’s face twisted with panic.

“You can’t keep me away from my family.”

General Bennett looked toward the street as another vehicle pulled up. Two military police officers stepped out.

Ryan’s stomach dropped.

“What is this?”