The Generals Missile

Chapter 06 - The Sleeping Dragon

Behold Madam Harrington!

My mother-in-law, stood before me... A mere five foot two of pure concentrated venom wrapped in a Chanel suit that cost more than most people's annual salary.

She walked like she owned every building she entered, and in most cases, she did.

Two nurses scrambled out of her way, a young resident nearly dropped his clipboard, his eyes wide with alarm as he spotted her.

"There you are," she declared, halting three feet from me, her gaze sweeping over me as if I were something stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

"Sitting here like a beggar!" She abused.

"Do you have any idea what you have done?"

I stood up slowly, drawing in a breath.

"Lily needed emergency treatment and I got her treatment." I said fearlessly to her.

"You called the military?" she spat! The word dripping with disdain, as if it were a profanity, her body posture assuming billionaire mother inlaw came in to save the day destroyed by her pathetic poor son inlaw.

"You brought soldiers into a civilian hospital!"

"You think this is a joke!?" She released her purse.

It was clear she didn't know she was allowed into this military base because I permitted it.

"Do you know what that looks like? Do you know what people are saying about the Harrington family because of your little stunt?" She roared.

"Your granddaughter was dying," I shot back, my voice steady despite the storm brewing in her eyes.

"She was not dying... She was ill! Children get ill, Ethan," her voice rose, sharp as a blade.

"But you, you had to make a spectacle!"

"You had to embarrass this family one more time."

A nurse walked past us, pretending not to listen, but I knew she was. They were all listening, the tension thickening in the air.

"Madam Harrington," I said, forcing calmness into my tone, "Lily's platelet count dropped to 12,000 and the normal range is 150,000 to 400,000."

"At 12,000, a sneeze could cause fatal internal bleeding and every hospital in this city refused to treat her because your husband blacklisted me!" I fired back at the ignorant old woman.

"What exactly did you expect me to do?"

"Watch my daughter die?" My voice rised in outrage.

She stepped closer, her perfume invading my senses... Dior, the one that costs $350 a bottle, suffocating and overpowering to mere losers like me, as she thought.

"I expected you to know your place," she hissed, her voice low and menacing.

"I expected you to come to us, on your knees, and beg for help like the pathetic waste of a man you are but instead, you went behind our backs... You made the Harrington family look powerless." She fired.

"My husband received six phone calls this morning! Exactly Six! From people asking why the military overrode his authority on healthcare hahaha." She laughed clearly pained by the embarrassment.

"Maybe his authority needed overriding," I replied, my heart pounding with a rigid face.

"Pow!" The slap came fast, her palm cracking across my left cheek so hard that my head turned, the sound echoing down the corridor, a doctor stopping in his tracks, two nurses freezing mid-step.

Military officers charged and I signalled then off.

"You ungrateful dog!" she seethed, her voice trembling with rage.... "We gave you a roof! We gave you food! We gave you our daughter! And even though you had nothing... Absolutely Nothing! this is how you repay us? By humiliating my husband in front of the entire medical establishment?" She fired in rage.

My cheek burned, the sharp sting accompanied by the metallic taste of blood where my teeth cut the inside of my lip and I said nothing, knowing any response would only fuel her fire but I was ready and I had a plan and it is surely worse than embarrassment.

"Look at you," she continued, circling me like a predator... "No money, No career, No family name, You cannot even afford the parking f*e for this hospital." She insulted me.

"My driver spends more on lunch than you earn in a week." She mocked.

"Are you done?" I asked, my voice low, but the simmering rage within me was barely contained, she was making a nuisance of my important time.

"Done? Hahaha!" she laughed, a cruel sound that cut through the air like glass shattering.

"I have not even started! I want you to listen very carefully, Ethan Cole, because I will only say this once... I am going to file for the emergency custody of Lily and My lawyers are already preparing the paperwork." She said emotionless and cared less.

"A man who cannot feed his own child, who cannot afford her medical bills, who has no stable income and no verifiable employment... that man does not deserve to be a father." She fired at me.

Oh well... That part hurt for a disguise but it wasn't true and I had heard enough!

The world stopped.

I mean everything went silent.

The buzzing lights.

The distant beep of monitors.

The shuffle of nurses' shoes.

All of it faded into an eerie stillness.

Asura had awakened without no emotions.

"Say that again!" I demanded, my voice colder than ice as my eyes widened like a hungry Lion.

"You-heard-me! Lily will be raised by the Harrington family and properly with resources! With education! With people who actually matter! Not by some... some street level failure who married above his station." She fired, this woman had the guts!

To think of it, why did I even permit her in?

My fists clenched so tight that I felt my nails break the skin of my palms, blood pooling in the creases of my fingers, the pain grounding me.

"You will not take my daughter!" I roared.

"Oh, I will." She smiled.

"And there is nothing you can do about it."

"What judge will side with you?" She asked.

"A man with no bank account?" She smiled.

"No property?" She mocked.

"No social standing?" She added with a wrinkled face.

"Against the Harrington family?" She smiled then, a smile that was pure poison.

"You should have stayed on your knees, Ethan, don't you understand... That is where you belong." She patted my shoulder, the nurses shaking at the sight, most of them undercover CIA Military rated personals.

Just then, the elevator doors opened again, and Victoria stepped out, carrying a small bag with Lily's favorite stuffed rabbit inside.

She saw us, her eyes darting between the two of us, the red mark on my cheek and her mother's posture... Triumphant, venomous, glowing with cruelty.

"Mom? What is going on?" Victoria asked, her voice laced with confusion.

"I am explaining reality to your husband, Victoria," Madam Harrington replied, her tone icy.

"Something you should have done years ago."

Victoria looked at me, and I could see the conflict in her eyes, the guilt, the years of being pulled between the family that raised her and the man she married.

Her lips parted, but no words came out.

"Victoria," Madam Harrington continued.

"I am filing for custody of Lily."

"This man cannot provide for her."

"You know it. I know it... Everyone knows it!"

Victoria's face went white.

"Mom, you can't..." She said.

Victoria for the first time stood against her mum.

Wow! That's new!

"I can and I will." She said.

"Unless he signs the divorce papers and walks away, Quietly, without making another scene." She required.

She turned back to me, her eyes cold and calculating.

"What will it be, Ethan?"

"Divorce and walk away with nothing? Or fight and lose everything, including your daughter?" She asked.

I looked at Victoria, trembling, the stuffed rabbit hanging from her fingers like a dead thing.

Then I looked at Madam Harrington, at her $12,000 suit, her $350 perfume, her lawyers, her judges, her money, her power, her everything, and she was indeed worthless to who I was... I smiled.

Finally, I turned my gaze to the window of Lily's room.

She was sleeping, her small chest rising and falling with each breath, the IV tube snaking into her thin arm.

My daughter, just four years old, fighting for her life while her own family used her as a weapon.

My phone buzzed again. - Drake.

A text message read:

"Confirmed! One of Voss's teams has a sniper positioned on the building across from the hospital... East wing, Seventh floor - Direct line of sight to Room 412." I read as my mode turned vicious.

Room 412! That's Lily's room.

I looked at Madam Harrington and smiled, a dark satisfaction creeping over me.

"You want a war, Madam Harrington?"

"You have no idea what war looks like."

"But you are about to find out." I said to her.

Her smile faltered, and for the first time in six years, I saw something new in her eyes... Fear!

I had eleven minutes.

That is how long Drake estimated it would take the sniper to get a clear shot through the hospital window once the sun shifted past the east wing shadow line.

Eleven minutes to move my daughter without alerting Voss's team that we knew they were there.

11 minutes to give Madam Harrington a Slap!