A guard from the wardroom comes out and looks at the panel. “It’s a cop, sir. A sergeant.”
I open the door. “Something wrong, officer?”
A cop in a white shirt named Garamond stands there, hat in hand, eyes already nervous. “Doctor O’Rourke?”
“Yes?” I step aside. “Come in.”
“Dr.DarraghO’Rourke?” He barely crosses the threshold, not letting me close the door.
Shit.
“I’mCormacO’Rourke.”
“I got a report from Harbor Hospital that a James Patrick O’Rourke was brought in, and you claimed to be his father.” He pulls out a fax copy of J.P.’s birth certificate.
From Seattle.
His footprints…
That’s how they found the birth record. And I gave them my name. They must’ve checked that against Seattle. But that’s their job. I respect that.
Now I have to choose if I own up to giving false information to the hospital tonight, or do I out Darragh for lying to the Seattle hospital where my son was born almost a year ago.
Fuck. That lie we’ve been telling to protect me fractures clean down the middle.
There’s no going back.
“He’s actuallymyson,” I say and wait for Garamond to stammer a response.
But a voice echoes from behind the cop, where another one of Ana’s guards is standing withScarlett’sarm tightly in his.
“Son?” she asks, eyes wide.
That guard is roughly pulling her away. “Let’s go. You’re not allowed on these grounds.”
“Get your fucking hands off her,” I snap. “That’smy wife.”
The guard drops her arm, looking horrified at my tone. “Sir, her car snuck in behind the cop.”
“Leave,” I order him. “I got this.”
I pull Scarlett into my arms. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
Shock plastered across her entire face, my wife looks like she hasn’t slept.
“When it got to be 5 a.m., and you still weren’t home, I thought your emergency might have gone off the rails. I went to the school, but the OR was empty. I didn’t want to text you if you were treating someone for Griffin somewhere else. Then the driver called around and mentioned something about an emergency. In Astoria.”
I glance over her shoulder and see the SUV with the driver I hired for her through Trace. “Shit.”
“Cormac…” she whispers. “You have a son? Who lives here with your brother?”
My heart stops. Everything I’ve been afraid to admit is now a wailing siren. I open my mouth to start explaining, but another SUV pulls up, and Darragh hops out.
Ana comes around from the other side. “Where is he?” she asks, but her eyes stray to the woman in my arms.
Like it’s something she never thought she’d see.
“Upstairs. Maya is with him. And Sophie is asleep,” I report. “I’d like to talk to my wife now.”