The New Life

The New Life
Isabella's POV

My baby's lips were blue as ice.

I pressed my mouth to hers and breathed as hard as I could. Her tiny chest rose and fell, but she still wasn't breathing on her own.

"Come on, sweetheart," I whispered. "Fight for me."

Marcus was driving the ambulance as fast as possible through the city streets. Tony was holding my shoulders, trying to help me stay calm.

"Is she responding?" Tony asked desperately.

I put my ear to my daughter's chest. Her heartbeat was there, but weak and too fast.

"Her heart is working, but her lungs aren't," I said.

I gave her mouth-to-mouth again. This time, I felt something different. A tiny breath coming back from her lungs.

"Wait," I said. "I think she's trying to breathe."

I tilted her head back slightly and cleared her mouth with my finger. Then I breathed into her lungs one more time.

Suddenly, she coughed.

Then she made a small crying sound.

Then she opened her eyes and looked right at me.

"She's awake!" Tony said, his voice full of joy.

Our daughter's cry got stronger. Her skin was changing from blue to pink. She was breathing on her own.

"Thank God," I said, holding her close to my chest. "Thank God."

"How is she?" Marcus called from the driver's seat.

"She's breathing," I said. "But we still need to get her to a doctor."

"Two more minutes," Marcus said. "The resistance medical boat is at the next pier."

I looked down at my daughter. She was so small and perfect. Her dark hair was wet from the water, and her eyes were the same color as Tony's.

"What should we name her?" Tony asked softly.

I thought about everything we had been through. All the people who had helped us and sacrificed for us.

"Maria," I said. "After your mother."

Tony's eyes filled with tears. "Mom would have loved her."

"She does love her," I said. "Wherever she is now, she's watching over us."

Marcus pulled up to a pier where a large boat was waiting. People in medical uniforms ran toward us with equipment.

"Bring her here," a woman doctor called out. "We have everything ready."

We carried baby Maria onto the medical boat. The doctor immediately started checking her breathing and heartbeat with special machines.

"Her oxygen levels are low, but improving," the doctor said. "Being born underwater was traumatic, but she's a fighter."

"Is she going to be okay?" I asked.

"I think so," the doctor said. "But she needs to stay under observation for at least twenty-four hours."

They put Maria in a small clear box with warm air flowing through it. She looked so tiny inside the medical equipment.

"Can I touch her?" I asked.

"Of course," the doctor said. "She needs her mother."

I reached into the box and held Maria's little hand. She gripped my finger with surprising strength.

"She knows you're here," Tony said, putting his arm around me.

For the first time in weeks, I felt hope. Our daughter was alive and safe. We had escaped Vincent Senior and Sarah Chen. Maybe our nightmare was finally over.

"Where are we going now?" I asked Marcus.

"There's a safe house on an island about an hour from here," Marcus said. "The resistance owns it. Vincent Senior will never find it."

The medical boat started moving away from the pier. I could see the city getting smaller behind us as we headed out to sea.

"Isabella," the doctor said, "you should rest too. Giving birth underwater was incredibly dangerous. You need to recover."

"I'm not leaving my baby," I said firmly.

"You don't have to leave her," the doctor said. "But please lie down. You've lost a lot of blood."

Tony helped me lie down on a bed next to Maria's medical equipment. I kept my hand on the clear box so I could touch her.

"Try to sleep," Tony said. "I'll watch over both of you."

"I can't sleep," I said. "What if something happens to her?"

"Nothing's going to happen," Tony said. "We're safe now."

But even as he said it, I heard a sound that made my heart stop.

Helicopter blades.

"What's that?" I asked.

Tony looked out the window of the medical boat. His face went white.

"Marcus!" he yelled. "We have a problem!"

"I see it," Marcus called back from the captain's area.

A black helicopter was flying toward us across the water. It was flying low and fast, like it was hunting us.

"Vincent Senior?" I asked.

"Has to be," Tony said.

The helicopter got closer. I could see men with guns hanging out of the open doors.

"They're going to attack the boat," Marcus said. "Everyone hold on!"

The doctor quickly secured Maria's medical equipment. "We need to protect the baby," she said.

That's when the helicopter opened fire.

Bullets hit the water all around our boat. The windows of the medical room shattered, sending glass everywhere.

"Get down!" Tony yelled, throwing himself over me and Maria's box.

More gunshots rang out. The boat's engine made a loud grinding noise, then stopped working.

"They hit the engine!" Marcus shouted. "We're dead in the water!"

The helicopter circled around us, preparing for another attack. I could see Vincent Senior sitting in the passenger seat, pointing at our boat.

"He found us," I said desperately.

"How?" Tony asked. "How did he know where we were going?"

That's when I noticed something terrible. One of the medical staff members was talking on a phone, even though bullets were flying everywhere.

"Tony," I said, pointing to the man with the phone. "Look."

The man was speaking quietly into his phone while everyone else was taking cover. He was giving someone our location.

"He's working for Vincent Senior," Tony realized.

The traitor saw us looking at him. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at Maria's medical box.

"Nobody move," he said loudly. "Or the baby dies."

The doctor gasped. "David, what are you doing?"

"What I'm being paid to do," David replied. "Vincent Senior wants the baby alive, but if you try to stop me, I'll shoot the life support machine."

I felt sick to my stomach. Even among people trying to help us, Vincent Senior had spies.

"How much is he paying you?" Tony asked angrily.

"Enough to disappear forever," David said. "More money than you can imagine."

"That baby is innocent," I said. "She's never hurt anyone."

"She's Vincent Senior's great-granddaughter," David said. "That makes her valuable."

The helicopter landed on the back of the medical boat. Vincent Senior stepped out with four armed men.

"Hello, children," Vincent Senior said as he walked into the medical room. "Congratulations on your new daughter."

"Stay away from her," I said, standing up despite my weakness.

"Oh, I'm not going to hurt little Maria," Vincent Senior said with that evil smile. "I'm going to raise her."

"Over my dead body," Tony said.

"That can be arranged," Vincent Senior replied, signaling to his men.

They pointed their guns at Tony and me.

"You see, I've realized something," Vincent Senior continued. "I don't need you two alive anymore. I just need the baby. She's the future of both our families."

"You're insane," I said.

"I'm practical," Vincent Senior said. "Maria will grow up knowing I'm her loving great-grandfather. She'll never know you existed."

He walked over to Maria's medical box and looked down at her.

"Hello, little one," he said softly. "Grandpa's here to take you home."

Maria started crying, as if she could sense the evil around her.

"She doesn't want to go with you," I said.

"She's a baby," Vincent Senior said. "She'll learn to love me."

That's when Marcus did something brave. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed it at Vincent Senior's men.

"Run!" he yelled through the white foam.

Tony grabbed me and we ran toward the other side of the boat. Behind us, I could hear gunshots and shouting.

But I couldn't leave Maria.

I turned around and ran back toward the medical room, even though bullets were flying everywhere.

"Isabella, no!" Tony yelled.

I reached Maria's medical box just as Vincent Senior was trying to lift her out of it.

"She needs the oxygen machine," I said desperately. "You'll kill her if you take her off it."

"Then we'll take the machine too," Vincent Senior said.

That's when the doctor did something unexpected. She injected something into Vincent Senior's arm with a needle.

"What did you give me?" Vincent Senior demanded.

"The same thing you've been giving your prisoners," the doctor said. "Mind control drugs."

Vincent Senior looked confused for a moment. Then he started swaying back and forth.

"You can't... control me..." he said, his words getting slurred.

"Actually, I can," the doctor said. "I've been working on an antidote to your drugs for months. This is the reverse formula."

Vincent Senior's men saw what was happening and started shooting at the doctor. She fell to the ground, but she was smiling.

"The drug will work in thirty seconds," she whispered to me as she died. "Get the baby and run."

I grabbed Maria's portable oxygen tank and lifted her out of the medical box. She was still breathing, but barely.

Tony appeared at my side. "This way! Marcus has a speedboat ready!"

We ran toward the back of the medical boat where Marcus was waiting in a small speedboat.

Behind us, Vincent Senior was stumbling around like he was drunk. His men were trying to help him, but the mind control drug was making him see things that weren't there.

"The boat!" I pointed to where Marcus was waiting.

We jumped into the speedboat just as Marcus started the engine.

"Hold on!" he yelled.

We sped away from the medical boat just as Vincent Senior's helicopter took off to chase us.

"They're following us!" Tony said.

"I know!" Marcus replied. "But I have a plan!"

He drove the speedboat toward a group of rocks sticking out of the water. The helicopter was right behind us, shooting at the water.

"Marcus, you're going to crash us into those rocks!" I yelled.

"Trust me!" he said.

At the last second, Marcus turned the speedboat sharply to the right. We barely missed the rocks.

But the helicopter pilot wasn't so lucky. He was flying too fast to turn in time.

The helicopter crashed into the rocks and exploded in a ball of fire.

"Vincent Senior," Tony said quietly.

"Is he dead?" I asked.

Marcus looked back at the burning helicopter. "Nobody could survive that crash."

I looked down at baby Maria in my arms. She was breathing steadily with the help of the portable oxygen tank.

"It's over," I said, hardly believing it. "Vincent Senior is finally gone."

"Not just Vincent Senior," Marcus said. "The whole medical boat is sinking. All his men went down with it."

We watched the medical boat disappear under the water. With it went thirty years of Vincent Senior's evil plans.

"We're free," Tony said, putting his arms around Maria and me.

But as we headed toward the island safe house, I saw something in the distance that made my blood freeze.

Another helicopter was flying toward us.

This one had FBI letters painted on the side.

Sarah Chen had found us again.

And she was bringing an army.