Chapter 2

The next morning, Cassian appeared at my apartment door holding a paper bag.

Inside were an almond croissant and a latte from my usual café. He remembered how I liked them. He'd remembered for eight years.

He held the bag out. "Sera, I was up all night thinking about what happened. Let me make it up to you, okay? We'll redo the engagement."

I leaned against the doorframe. I didn't let him in.

"Redo it? And what if she 'suddenly'—'can't control herself' again?"

"Am I supposed to stand there with my family and be humiliated in front of everyone a second time?"

He was quiet for a few seconds. When he spoke again, impatience had already crept into his voice.

"Then what do you want? It's done, Sera. I know you were hurt, but Vittoria just lost her husband—she's raising a child all by herself."

"And last night she was in complete mental breakdown. She didn't pick that moment on purpose. Can't we just be a little more understanding?"

That word again.

I took the bag and set it on the console table by the door.

"Fine. You should go. They need someone taking care of them."

Cassian exhaled in relief, apparently thinking I'd come around.

"I knew you'd understand. Don't worry—once things settle down, I'll make it up to you properly."

He left.

I threw the bag of breakfast, untouched, into the trash.

I put on my white coat and went to work. Rounding the corner of the pediatric wing, I saw Cassian.

He was carrying Ron. Vittoria trailed close behind him, one hand hooked around his elbow, her face tight with worry as she spoke to a nurse.

The three of them walked together like a complete family.

Cassian spotted me. His expression froze for an instant.

Vittoria immediately lowered her head, pulling her hand away from his arm.

I didn't slow down. I walked straight to my office.

That afternoon, my mentor, Dr. Hargrove, came to find me.

"Sera, there's a child with what looks like a cardiac issue. Pediatrics wants you to consult."

"I'm in thoracic surgery, not pediatric cardiac."

"I know. But you're the best this hospital has, and the case is complicated. Do me a favor."

Dr. Hargrove was the man who'd built my career from the ground up. I couldn't say no.

Two bodyguards stood outside the VIP suite, checking my badge carefully before they opened the door.

I stepped inside. Ron lay in bed, his skin a waxy yellow. Vittoria sat at his bedside and, seeing me, immediately started to cry again.

"Dr. Aldridge, please—save Ron… He's all Domenico left behind…"

I opened the test results.

Congenital ventricular septal defect. The opening sat dangerously close to the major vessels and the conduction bundle.

"What's the surgical risk?"

Cassian stood by the window, his voice low.

"Approximately thirty percent intraoperative mortality." I closed the chart.

Vittoria collapsed to the floor. Cassian crossed the room in one stride and caught her, then turned to me.

That look—I knew it well. Absolute. Unyielding.

"Seraphina, you're doing this surgery. And it has to succeed."

My tone was flat.

"Cassian, I'm a doctor, not God. I can't guarantee the outcome."

"I don't care!" His voice rose sharply. "Domenico died because of me! I have to keep his son alive! If you're not confident, then bring in the best specialist in the country!"

Every pair of eyes in the room was pinned on me.

Then Vittoria crawled up from the floor and seized the hem of my white coat with both hands.

"Dr. Aldridge, I know you hate me… hate me for ruining your engagement… If you want to hate someone, hate me—Ron is innocent. You can't hold back because of what I did…"

Her words were like shards of broken glass, each one embedding itself under my skin.

Whispers from the corridor washed in like a tide.

"Isn't that her? The doctor whose fiancé abandoned her at the engagement party—"

"God, this is going to be ugly. You think she'd sabotage the surgery out of spite…?"

Cassian's expression shifted in an instant.

His face went ashen. He fixed his eyes on me and spoke one word at a time: "Seraphina, if you let anything happen to this child because of some grudge, I will never forgive you."

My heart sank below freezing.

He had just threatened me. In front of everyone.

I looked at him. Then at Vittoria, still on her knees. And I smiled—faintly.

"Fine. I'll do the surgery."

I paused.

"But you're signing a liability waiver. And I'm reporting the surgical risk level to the hospital administration and notifying every relevant department to prepare for the worst-case scenario."

"I want every single person to know that this surgery was done at the demand of Cassian Montero. If the child dies on the table—you bear the consequences. All of them. Alone."

Cassian's fists clenched at his sides. His knuckles cracked.

He stared at me, disappointment and fury churning in his eyes.

"Seraphina Aldridge, I never knew you were this kind of person."

"Now you do."

I slapped the chart against his chest—he instinctively stepped back half a pace.

"Make up your mind and go file the paperwork."

I turned and walked out of the room, my eyes so dry they could have cracked and spilled tears at any second.

But they didn't.