There was nothing behind her eyes except cold emptiness as the heavy door clicked shut behind them.
For several agonizing seconds, the delivery room fell into a terrifying silence, broken only by the steady rhythm of the heart monitor and the baby’s soft breathing. The veteran floor nurse, who had been quietly monitoring the vital signs from the corner of the room, let out a harsh curse under her breath.
“I have served in this maternity unit for over fifteen years,” the nurse whispered, her voice trembling with anger. “I have never in my life witnessed parents abandon a perfectly healthy newborn infant like garbage.”
Less than twenty minutes later, a senior social worker named Sarah Jenkins arrived at my bedside alongside Dr. Miller, the attending pediatrician who had managed my delivery. They asked quiet, precise questions, recorded detailed notes in their official files, and made multiple frantic attempts to contact Samantha and Ronald over the phone, but both parents firmly refused to return to the facility.
