Chapter 2

"Jackson, please!" I screamed, my voice tearing my throat raw. "You can't do this! I'm carrying your baby! Our baby!"

Jackson stood by the heavy metal doors, his arms crossed over his tailored suit. His face was a mask of carved ice. He didn't look at my tears. He didn't look at the sheer, unadulterated terror consuming my soul.

"Begin the extraction," Jackson ordered the trembling doctor.

Before the surgeon could even lift the silver scalpel, the operating room doors swung open.

Taylor strolled in.

She wasn't wearing a hospital gown. She was wearing a stunning, crimson silk dress that clung to her perfectly healthy curves. In her hand, she held a delicate crystal bowl filled with a rich, red strawberry dessert.

My breath hitched. Strawberries. My deadly allergy. The very scent of them used to send Jackson into a protective panic, clearing entire rooms just to keep me safe. Now, he watched her eat them with a soft, adoring smile.

"Taylor," I gasped, the betrayal suffocating me like a physical weight. "How could you?"

Taylor took a slow, deliberate bite of the dessert. She chewed, swallowed, and let out a light, melodic laugh that echoed violently off the sterile tile walls.

"Oh, Alynna," Taylor sighed, walking toward the operating table. She leaned over me, her eyes dancing with pure, unfiltered malice. "You really are pathetic. Did you honestly think Jackson ever loved a mousy, boring little orphan like you?"

She traced the edge of the surgical tray with her perfectly manicured fingernail.

"You were nothing but a walking organ donor," Taylor whispered, her voice dripping with venomous triumph. "And you were so desperately in love, you didn't even notice. Do you know how much it cost to pay off the auction staff at Sotheby’s? A hundred thousand pounds to loosen those chandelier bolts. A small price to pay to get you on this table without raising any suspicion."

My blood ran completely cold. The accident. The falling glass. It was all a meticulously orchestrated execution.

"You tried to kill me," I choked out, my chest heaving violently.

"I tried to harvest you," Taylor corrected smoothly, taking another bite of the strawberries. "There's a difference."

The sheer, absolute terror of her words crashed into me like a tidal wave.

The physical trauma from the crushed glass, combined with the devastating, world-shattering betrayal, pushed my body past its absolute breaking point.

A sudden, blinding spike of agony ripped through my lower abdomen.

It wasn't a dull ache. It was a vicious, tearing cramp—a vice grip of pure fire clamping down on my womb.

"Ah!" I screamed, my back arching violently off the steel table.

A warm, terrifying rush of liquid soaked the sterile white sheets beneath me. The heart monitor attached to my chest began to blare a frantic, high-pitched warning, filling the room with a deafening panic.

The doctor rushed forward, his face draining of all color as he looked at the crimson stain spreading across the linens.

"Mr. Eala," the doctor stammered, his hands shaking wildly. "She's going into severe shock. The trauma... she's miscarrying."

The fragile, desperate hope I had clung to completely shattered. My baby. My innocent, unborn child. Gone. Snatched away in a pool of blood and betrayal. I sobbed, a raw, guttural wail of pure agony tearing from my lips.

Jackson’s calm facade finally cracked. But it wasn't out of grief. It was out of pure, unadulterated rage.

"You useless, pathetic waste!" Jackson roared, slamming his fist against the medical tray. Instruments clattered to the floor. "That was my heir!"

He glared at my bleeding, broken body with absolute disgust. He didn't mourn our child. He mourned a lost asset.

"Cut her open anyway," Jackson commanded, his voice a lethal, unyielding vow. "I don't care if she bleeds out. Take the kidney now!"

The doctor picked up the scalpel, his hands trembling as he approached my exposed skin.

In that single, agonizing second, something inside me completely snapped.

With a primal scream, I twisted my wrist, dislocating my own thumb with a sickening pop. The leather strap loosened just enough. I ripped my hand free, ignoring the blinding pain.

Before the doctor could even blink, I lunged upward. I snatched the surgical scalpel directly from his trembling fingers. Without a single ounce of hesitation, I slashed the razor-sharp blade across his forearm.

The doctor shrieked, dropping back as blood sprayed across his white coat.

"Grab her!" Jackson bellowed, lunging toward the table.

I swung the scalpel wildly, the blade slicing through the air inches from Jackson’s face. He stumbled backward, his eyes widening in sheer shock.

I didn't wait for him to recover. I ripped the straps off my ankles, my bare feet hitting the cold tile floor. Pain exploded through my crushed ribs, but I didn't care.

I shoved the heavy metal doors open and sprinted down the sterile hospital corridor.

"Don't let her get away!" Jackson’s roar echoed behind me.

I burst through the emergency exit doors, colliding instantly with the freezing, unforgiving London rain.

The icy downpour soaked through my thin hospital gown in seconds. I stumbled down the wet pavement, my bare feet bleeding against the harsh concrete.

I didn't know where I was going. I just knew I had to run.

My lungs burned. My vision tunneled into a dark, suffocating blur. The blood loss from the miscarriage and the chandelier was finally dragging me under.

I turned down a narrow, pitch-black alleyway. My knees buckled. I hit the wet cobblestones hard, the scalpel slipping from my numb fingers.

I lay in the freezing puddle, the rain washing the blood from my legs. I was going to die here. In the gutter. Alone.

My eyelids fluttered shut. The cold embraced me completely.

Then, the rhythmic, deliberate click of footsteps echoed over the pouring rain.

Someone was walking down the alley.

I forced my eyes open a fraction of an inch. A towering figure stood over me, blocking out the dim streetlights.

"Well," a deep, chilling voice murmured, vibrating with a dark, terrifying amusement. "Look at what my pathetic brother did to you."