Chapter 10 - The Clinic
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Thomas stepped into the ultrasound room with his phone in his hand and apology written across his face.
He said a black car had followed the decoy vehicle from Rosa's street before losing it at the highway.
He said a second car had been found parked near the clinic with its plates removed and its engine warm.
Gabriel rose from beside Lana while the technician quietly removed the ultrasound wand and covered her with a blanket.
Lana sat up slowly and asked Thomas directly whether the second car belonged to Victor Salerno's people.
Thomas said two men had been detained by investigators two blocks away with a camera and a rifle case.
The rifle case had contained only camera equipment but the message of its shape had been deliberate and cruel.
Lana understood they wanted her afraid enough to run or hide or beg Gabriel to surrender the terminal bid.
She felt the old urge to disappear rising in her throat like water in a flooding room at midnight.
Gabriel saw it in her face and did not order her to be brave or calm or reasonable.
He asked her what she wanted to do and waited while she sorted fear from genuine desire slowly.
She said she wanted to finish the appointment and hear every word about her daughter from the doctor.
She said she wanted to eat lunch afterward because fear had stolen too many meals from her already.
She said she wanted Victor arrested for intimidation before he learned subtler ways to reach her family.
Gabriel nodded as if she had given battle orders and Thomas relayed them to the investigators without commentary.
Dr. Ruiz entered and reviewed the ultrasound results with brisk warmth that steadied everyone in the small room.
She said their daughter measured perfectly for twenty weeks and showed no sign of stress from recent events.
She said Lana's iron levels had improved and her blood pressure had remained stable for two full weeks.
She recommended continued caution and regular rest but removed the strictest limits on walking and light activity.
Lana thanked her and asked for a printed image she could send to Rosa and Marco and Priya.
The technician printed three copies and Gabriel held them like legal documents that might be challenged in court.
Outside the clinic investigators had cleared the street and Thomas chose a new route back to Connecticut.
They ate lunch in the car from paper bags Marta had packed because restaurants felt too exposed that day.
Lana ate a whole sandwich and drank a carton of milk and Gabriel watched with undisguised and quiet satisfaction.
He told her about his own lunch habits before she became his secretary and she was appalled by them.
Apparently he had eaten standing at his desk for years and considered coffee a food group unto itself.
She laughed in the back seat while armed men drove them home and the absurdity of it steadied her.
At Rosa's house federal agents waited in the study with a request they had rehearsed carefully before arriving.
They wanted Lana to testify about Leo's threat and about the invoice question that had triggered his visit.
They wanted her records and her timeline and eventually her appearance before a grand jury in January.
Lana listened with her hands folded and asked whether testifying would be public and whether Victor would attend.
The lead agent said grand jury proceedings were sealed and her name would remain protected during the investigation.
She asked for a night to consider and the agents agreed without pressure and left their cards with Thomas.
Gabriel walked them out and returned to find Lana staring at the ultrasound image on Rosa's refrigerator door.
She said Leo had counted on her silence because frightened women were expected to protect everyone except themselves.
She said she was tired of being the secret every man in the story used as a weapon or shield.
Gabriel asked if that meant she would testify and she said it meant she would decide as a citizen.
That distinction pleased him because it belonged entirely to her and not to his war with Victor Salerno.
That evening Priya Nair arrived from the city with a suitcase and a fierce hug and tears she denied crying.
Priya was the friend who had found the forged license and the Seabrook landlord and the clinic in Oregon.
Gabriel greeted her at the door and thanked her for helping Lana when Lana believed no one else would.
Priya studied him with open suspicion and said she would decide about him after observing him for a weekend.
Rosa adored her instantly and put her to work rolling pasta while interrogating her about hospital nursing shifts.
Marco arrived for dinner and fell half in love with Priya's bluntness before the appetizers were cleared away.
Priya told him his charm was a traffic hazard and Marco clutched his chest as if mortally wounded.
Laughter filled Rosa's kitchen in waves and Lana sat among them with her daughter kicking gently beneath her hand.
Later Priya took Lana upstairs and demanded the whole truth about Gabriel's behavior since the collapse in private.
Lana told her about the torn train ticket and the promise that choice would return when she was stronger.
She told her about Leo's arrest by investigators instead of violence and about the photograph refused as blackmail.
She told her about chess and ultrasounds and a man learning presence like a language he had never studied.
Priya listened and then said the license money was gone and Seabrook could still be arranged within a week.
She said friendship meant keeping the escape door open even when the house started looking like a home.
Lana looked at the ultrasound copy on the nightstand and felt the question settle honestly between them at last.
She told Priya she no longer wanted to run but she was grateful the door had existed when she needed it.
Priya hugged her and said staying by choice was different from staying by capture and the difference mattered most.
Downstairs Gabriel was losing at chess to Rosa who showed him no maternal mercy whatsoever at the board.
He looked up when Lana entered and his relief at her calm face was visible to everyone in the room.
That night she called the lead federal agent herself from Rosa's study while Gabriel waited in the hallway.
She said she would testify in January and provide her records and answer every question about Leo's threat truthfully.
After she hung up she opened the study door and found Gabriel leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.
He said he had not listened and she believed him because the new Gabriel kept promises even in small hallways.
May you like
She took his hand and led him back to the kitchen where Rosa was pretending the chess game had not ended.
For the first time since October Lana felt the future was something she was walking toward rather than fleeing from.
