Chapter 5: The Woman He Kept Choosing
The first person Alex saw after leaving Lucy's room was Valerie.
She was sitting in a wheelchair near the hospital café, scrolling through her phone with a cup of coffee balanced in her lap.
She looked up and smiled when she spotted him.
"There you are."
Alex stopped walking.
For a moment, he simply stared at her.
She looked... fine.
The cut on her forehead had been covered with a small bandage.
Her makeup had been touched up.
She was wearing clean clothes someone had brought from her apartment.
There wasn't a trace of the frantic woman he'd carried out of the elevator less than twenty-four hours earlier.
"You look terrible," she said, standing up from the wheelchair without any difficulty. "Did you even sleep?"
Alex frowned.
"I thought you couldn't walk."
Valerie blinked.
"What?"
"The paramedics said you needed a wheelchair."
She shrugged.
"They were just being cautious."
Something about the answer unsettled him.
It wasn't the words.
It was how casually she said them.
As if none of yesterday had really mattered.
"Come on." She slipped her arm through his. "Let's get some coffee."
Alex gently stepped away.
"I'm not really in the mood."
Valerie sighed dramatically.
"Alex, yesterday was traumatic for both of us."
Both of us.
The words landed wrong.
Lucy had spent seven hours trapped in a failing elevator while pregnant.
Their daughter had nearly died.
And Valerie was comparing her experience to Lucy's.
"I need to check on my wife."
Valerie's smile faded.
"She's alive."
"Yes."
"So she's fine."
Alex looked at her.
"Fine?"
"You know what I mean."
"No."
His voice was flat.
"I don't."
Valerie folded her arms.
"I had a panic attack, Alex."
"I know."
"I couldn't breathe."
"I know."
"I thought I was dying."
Alex nodded slowly.
"So did my wife."
Silence.
For the first time since they'd met again two years earlier, Valerie didn't have an answer.
Two floors above, Lucy sat in a wheelchair outside the NICU.
A nurse carefully rolled her toward a row of glass windows.
"Are you ready?"
Lucy nodded, though her hands trembled.
The nurse smiled warmly.
"She's in Incubator Four."
Lucy looked through the glass.
Time stopped.
Her daughter was impossibly tiny.
A knit pink cap covered her dark hair.
Tiny sensors rested against her chest.
A feeding tube and monitoring wires surrounded her fragile little body.
Yet every few seconds...
Her little fingers moved.
Lucy covered her mouth as tears spilled freely down her face.
"Hi, sweetheart."
Her voice cracked.
"I'm here."
The NICU nurse standing beside the incubator smiled.
"She can't hear every word yet."
Lucy never looked away.
"I think she knows."
The nurse opened the incubator door.
"You can touch her hand."
Lucy reached inside carefully.
Her fingertip barely brushed the baby's palm.
Instantly...
The tiny fingers curled around hers.
Lucy gasped.
"Oh..."
The nurse smiled.
"She's got quite a grip."
Lucy laughed through her tears.
"Just like her father."
The words slipped out before she could stop them.
She closed her eyes.
"No."
She whispered to herself.
"Just like her mother."
Meanwhile, Captain Henry Brooks walked into Fire Station 18 carrying a sealed envelope.
The firefighters immediately fell silent.
Everyone had seen the news.
Everyone knew what had happened.
Brooks placed the envelope on Alex's desk.
"Internal Affairs."
Alex stared at it.
"So soon?"
"The incident involved civilians."
Brooks folded his arms.
"And one of those civilians was your wife."
No one spoke.
Finally, Brooks continued.
"They'll review body camera footage."
Alex nodded.
"Okay."
"They'll review radio transmissions."
Another nod.
"They'll interview every firefighter on scene."
Alex looked up.
"I understand."
Brooks hesitated.
"And they'll interview the passengers."
Alex closed his eyes.
Lucy.
Mark.
The elderly man.
The little boy's mother.
Everyone.
Every single person had watched him walk past his pregnant wife.
"There was another development."
Alex looked up again.
"What?"
"The department store released security footage."
His stomach tightened.
"What does it show?"
Brooks slid a tablet across the desk.
Alex pressed play.
The video came from a surveillance camera outside the elevator.
No sound.
Just images.
The doors opened.
Alex entered.
Without looking left.
Without looking right.
He went directly to Valerie.
Thirty seconds later, Mark appeared.
He knelt beside Lucy.
He checked her pulse.
He called for the stretcher.
The footage continued.
Paramedics rushed Lucy away while Alex stood beside Valerie's ambulance.
Only after hearing someone shout "pregnant patient" did Alex turn around.
The timestamp showed exactly forty-three seconds.
Forty-three seconds.
That was how long his wife had lain unconscious inside the elevator before anyone reached her.
Forty-three seconds.
Alex couldn't breathe.
He replayed the footage.
Again.
And again.
Each time, the truth became harder to escape.
No one had pushed him toward Valerie.
No one had ordered him to ignore Lucy.
No one had stopped him from assessing the entire elevator.
The decision had been entirely his.
Captain Brooks quietly took back the tablet.
"There's one more thing."
Alex looked exhausted.
"What now?"
"The media found out Lucy is your wife."
His heart sank.
"They know?"
Brooks nodded.
"The story is changing."
As if on cue, one firefighter silently turned the television toward them.
The morning news anchor spoke solemnly.
"Questions are being raised after surveillance footage appeared to show a Chicago firefighter rescuing a longtime female friend before assisting his pregnant wife during yesterday's downtown elevator emergency. The Fire Department has confirmed an internal review is underway."
The screen switched to cellphone footage.
There was Alex.
Carrying Valerie.
Then another clip.
Mark placing Lucy onto the stretcher.
The contrast was impossible to ignore.
Around the station, no one said a word.
Not because they hated Alex.
Because they didn't know what could possibly be said.
For years, he had been known as one of the department's most dependable officers.
The man who never hesitated.
The firefighter everyone trusted.
Now...
One decision.
One moment.
One choice.
Had become the mistake that would follow him for the rest of his life.
And somewhere across the city...
Lucy sat beside her daughter, gently holding one tiny hand.
For the first time in years...
She wasn't wondering whether Alex would choose her.
May you like
She already knew the answer.
Now she simply had to build a life that no longer depended on it.
