Chapter Seven
Six months had passed. Gabriel was speaking to the doctor about Catherine's pregnancy. "Boss, the nature of the pregnancy... it- it's not normal. It's progressing at an alarming fast pace. The child could be born at any minute."
"I want that child. The baby- it will be extraordinary," said Gabriel. He was watching the footage of Vincent tearing down the door, growling, snarling, and fighting off the guards. Gabriel was riveted to the screen. He enjoyed watching the footage over and over.
Catherine was taken down the hall for an ultrasound. On the way there, Catherine begged a middle-aged nurse to help her. "Please, take this to someone outside," Catherine pleaded, giving the nurse a small scrap of paper.
The nurse looked at Catherine with cold eyes. As the ultrasound commenced, Gabriel was present. To Catherine's great dismay, the nurse gave the scrap of paper to Gabriel right in front of Catherine. She had no help. No one would come to save her. Catherine was heartbroken. She feared that they'd take her baby.
"It's a boy," the doctor said to Gabriel.
"Excellent," Gabriel said with a half-smile.
~*~o~*~
Vincent had spent agonizing months without his Catherine. He had returned to the warehouse many times, but there was no sign of the woman he loved. Sadly, one night, Father insisted that Catherine must be dead. "She is not dead!" Vincent bellowed. He refused to believe he had lost her forever.
Later that night as Vincent lay in his bed, he could a pounding sound within his head. At first it was faint... but with time, it grew louder. It sounded like... a heartbeat!
"Catherine!" he screamed, jumping up from his bed.
Was it Catherine's heartbeat he was hearing? Had his connection to her returned?
But it was not Catherine's heartbeat that alerted Vincent. It was the baby's. He could hear the child's heartbeat as Catherine lay in her bare, sterile room, having terrible pains. With each contraction, Catherine winced. She cried out softly in agony and fear.
Biting her lower lip, she knelt down on the floor, under the watchful 'eye' of the camera. Vincent continued to hear the amazing heartbeat of the child. It was getting stronger and stronger... and it was calling to him. Suddenly, Vincent knew where to go. He was exhilarated, knowing that the connection he had just regained would lead him to Catherine.
Vincent rushed to the facility where Catherine had been held captive for the past six months. He barged his way inside, killing everyone in his path in an attempt rescue his beloved. In the meantime, Catherine was taken to a hospital room and strapped to a table. Vincent was destroying all the cameras in the facility as he made his way toward his destination. The heartbeat was intense. It beckoned him. He was raging as he tried to get to Catherine's side.
Catherine was instructed to push as doctor knelt between her knees. She was pushing with all her strength, but still the baby did not emerge. Gabriel stood by, watching the baby's birth. He was watching the monitors and he knew that it was just a matter of time before Vincent burst into the room. He couldn't take the chance. He turned to the doctor and said coldly, "Cut the child out."
With a grim look upon his face, the doctor reached for scalpel. As he moved it closer to Catherine's enlarged abdomen, she cried out, "No!" She began to push with renewed force. With a loud gasp, she felt the child slide from her body.
Her baby boy had been born. All she got was a glimpse of her son as the doctor wrapped him in a blanket and handed him to the nurse. He was crying. Her baby son was crying... and all she wanted was to hold him.
Gabriel gazed upon the child. "He's perfect," he said as he took in the features of the tiny face.
"Please... Let me hold him. PLEASE," Catherine pleaded, but sadly, to her dismay, the nurse and the guards took her son away, leaving Catherine all alone in the room with Gabriel and the doctor.
"Take care of it," Gabriel said to the doctor without an ounce of compassion.
He rushed out of room as the doctor prepared an injection for Catherine. "You won't suffer," the doctor said with a sad expression as he pushed the needle into Catherine's vein. She struggled as she was injected with an unknown drug.