Chapter 404

• VALENTINA
• ~•~
• The alarm on the wall-mounted monitor had been climbing for the better part of an hour, a thin, insistent tone that never quite became a full emergency klaxon but never fell silent either. I lay still because the attendant had ordered continuous recumbency, both hands spread over the hard curve of my stomach, counting the baby’s movements the way I had once counted staged authentication intervals. The movements were sharp and irregular. The rapid watery sound of the fetal heart filled the bay at a volume that made every other noise feel distant.