Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 386

"I decided to wait until she was physically stronger and ready to be discharged before dropping the truth on her.

"But before I could, all hell broke loose. I was out grabbing lunch one afternoon when I realized I had left my phone in Lacey's room. I turned around to head back to the ward."

Sebastian lit a second cigarette, his voice trembling as he recalled the nightmare.

"It must have been divine intervention, Mira. You weren't meant to die that day.

"As I was walking down the corridor, I saw a nurse carrying a baby, moving with this frantic, guilty urgency. I slipped into Lacey's room. She was dead asleep, the hired caretaker was nowhere to be found, and only the older baby was left in the bassinet.

"I bolted after the nurse. She hadn't gone far. I kept my distance, tailing her through the hospital. It was lunch hour, so the halls were mostly empty.

"I followed her out to the main hospital courtyard. I watched from around a corner as she shoved the baby into a thick plastic garbage bag, marched out to the hospital's main dumpster, threw the bag in, and hurried back inside.

"I sprinted to the dumpster and tore the bag open. You were already turning blue. If I had been ten seconds later, you would have suffocated.

"People throw trash in there all day. No one would ever suspect a living newborn was buried under the filth.

"Every time I think about it, my blood runs cold. Shoving a sleeping infant into a trash bag, tying it shut, and tossing it into a dumpster? It was pure, unadulterated evil. You still had your umbilical cord attached. By the time anyone found you, you would have been just another medical disposal corpse.

"Was I too merciful? If I had tied the knot tight and thrown her into the dark like that monster did to you, you wouldn't have had to endure the hell they put you through."

Mira remained silent. If Mara had died that day, would Mira's past life have been spared the tragic end? But going down that path meant abandoning her own humanity.

"You did the right thing," Mira said softly. "That's the difference between a human and a monster. They're monsters."

"So what happened next?" she asked.