from the cafeteria.
“The board acted,” he said.
I looked at the tiny rise and fall of my daughter’s chest.
“Will that make the babies better?”
“No,” he answered.
It was exactly the response I needed.
He didn’t pretend a business victory could solve a medical emergency.
He didn’t tell me everything would be fine.
He sat beside me while I listened to the monitors.
After several minutes, I whispered, “I’m afraid to get attached to a future I might not have.”
Samuel looked through the glass.
“Then just stay with today.
They’re here today.
And so are you.”
Later that night, a nurse helped me hold Benjamin against my chest for a carefully supervised skin-to-skin session.
His body was warm and astonishingly light.
I could feel each small breath.
I thought about the divorce papers, the missing money, and Graham’s betrayal.
Then Benjamin moved his fingers against my skin.
Everything else became less urgent.
CHAPTER SIX — THE RECORD THAT COULDN’T LIE
The next ten days were the hardest of my life.
Mae needed additional respiratory support after a difficult night.
Benjamin struggled with feeding.
Some mornings brought encouraging updates; others brought new concerns.
I learned the language of the NICU one careful question at a time.
I learned how to recognize when my children were comfortable, how to participate in their care, and how to celebrate progress that might have looked insignificant to someone else.
Five additional grams of weight.
A stable night.
A few minutes being held.
Meanwhile, the financial investigation continued.
The forensic accountants traced the suspicious transfer requests through a corporate tablet assigned to Graham’s executive office.
The authorization was submitted using credentials associated with my account, even though my access had supposedly been disabled weeks earlier.
The records also showed that the corporate tablet had connected to a network used at the private residence where Graham and Lydia had been spending time.
That evidence alone wasn’t proof of who had entered the approval.
But it contradicted Graham’s claim that I had authorized it from the hospital.
The investigators also uncovered internal messages directing staff to process Crosspoint invoices outside the normal review cycle.
A separate review found that Crosspoint had provided little documentation supporting several of its charges.
When Lydia retained her own lawyer, she agreed to cooperate with the company’s investigation through counsel.
Her account was damaging.
She said Graham had represented the payments as legitimate consulting compensation and told her that my approval was already secured.
She admitted she had ignored warning signs because the money was generous and she believed Graham would eventually make her his wife.
Whether she had knowingly participated in fraud remained a question for investigators.
But the story Graham had told her was falling apart.
One afternoon, Evelyn came to the hospital with a preliminary report.
“The board has authorized legal action to recover the diverted funds,” she explained.
“The company is also referring the evidence to the appropriate authorities.”
“Will Graham go to prison?”
“I can’t promise any particular criminal outcome,” she replied.
“Investigations and courts determine that.”
I appreciated that she refused to give me comforting predictions.
Then she handed me another document.
It was a copy of an email Graham had sent to his personal attorney before the twins were born.
The message discussed
