Clint's eyes blazed red—instant, total, like a furnace door ripped open.
He laid Rowena on the bed, walked straight to me, and backhanded me across the face without a word.
No time to dodge. My body went weightless and my forehead slammed into the emergency monitor.
It took a long moment before the blur receded and the room came back.
My cheek and forehead burned, swollen and throbbing.
I tore my surgical cap off, hurled it to the floor, and pointed straight at Rowena. "Her baby has albinism! That's what she gave birth to!"
Rowena's shoulders heaved violently. Tears fell one after another as she sobbed, "Your hospital is trying to pass off a sick baby as ours."
Clint's brows knotted into a hard line. One hand closed around my throat and my feet left the ground.
His voice was low, scraped raw, every word ground out from somewhere deep in his chest. "Muriel—you people switched out my son. Your hospital actually had the nerve." His grip tightened. "Where is he? Where's my son?"
I hammered at his hand, kicked at his legs. None of it loosened his grip. Breathing only got harder.
When the assisting physician moved to help me, Clint spoke through clenched teeth: "Bring me my son, or I'll kill her right here."
The assistant and the anesthesiologist scrambled out the door.
My hands dropped, too weak to fight.
He flung me aside and I hit the floor hard.
Something stabbed into my back on impact. My clothes went wet all at once, the pain so fierce I couldn't stand. I could only curl up on the floor and scream through my teeth: "Clint James, that baby isn't yours! Senior Paddy's the father—ask her!"
The liquid spread from behind me to where I could see it, and I realized it was blood.
Rowena's eyes went wide with shock. She forced herself off the bed and clung to Clint, her voice thin and shaking. "Clint, there's nothing between me and Senior Paddy. She's lying.
"I love you so much. Heaven and earth can testify. I would never do something like that.
"Believe me, please believe me…"
She sank to her knees, putting on the full performance—the wronged woman, the unbearable injustice—and would not stop pleading.
The door slammed open. Head Nurse Carter burst in.
She was gasping for breath. "The baby's alive.
"Take the child. Stop hurting Dr. Maxwell."