Chapter 4

"Adrian!"

I threw myself forward and clutched at his trouser leg.

"You can't do this!"

"You know my mother's heart is bad. If she sees that—"

After my father died, she couldn't withstand any violent emotional shock at all.

If she saw her own daughter degraded like that—

"Stop using Gianna as a shield."

Adrian kicked me away, his eyes full of exhaustion.

"Natalie, you crossed the line first."

He didn't stay another second. He turned and slammed the door behind him.

Within half an hour my phone was buzzing nonstop.

Push notifications flooded the screen.

[LEAKED: Intimate photos of Mrs. Moretti! Suspected severe mental illness!]

I hadn't even opened the article when the hospital called.

"Mrs. Moretti, your mother has suffered an acute cardiac event. She's in the emergency room now. Please come immediately."

I ran out of the house barefoot, hailed a cab, and went to the hospital.

The red light above the ER doors stared down at me.

A nurse came hurrying out with a file.

"Donna Natalie, your mother's condition is critical. She needs immediate bypass surgery."

"Please go to billing. We need to prepare blood products and specialized equipment right away."

I nodded, white-faced, and fumbled out my black card.

The nurse ran it.

"I'm sorry, Donna Natalie. Your card has been frozen."

"That's impossible!"

I was shaking all over, and panic swallowed me whole.

"Try this one. And this one!"

Every card the same. Frozen.

There was exactly one person in this city who could shut down all of my accounts at once.

My hands shook as I called Adrian.

The phone rang a long time before he picked up.

"Adrian, I'm begging you, unfreeze my cards—"

"My mother's in the ER. She needs surgery and I have to pay—"

Adrian let out a tired, impatient sigh.

"Natalie. Is this performance of yours still going?"

"I didn't do anything! My mother is really—"

"Bianca's reputation matters right now. I'm not leaving you money to hire PR against her."

He cut me off without a trace of warmth.

"Once this blows over, I'll restore your access."

"I've looked after Gianna for years. I know her condition. Stop using her to threaten me."

There was no give in him at all.

My mother, Gianna, had been close friends with Adrian's mother.

When the Morettis treated Adrian and his mother as a stain on the family, my mother was the one who reached out without hesitating.

For years afterward, Adrian cared for my mother with enormous attention.

Her mind had been unstable ever since the disaster that befell my family.

He drove her to her appointments himself, sorted her medication by the week, even monitored her meals.

Everyone said Adrian looked after her better than I did, and I was her daughter.

But next to Bianca, all of it counted for nothing. Even my mother.

"But this time is different!"

I was screaming now, finally shattering.

"I need Dr. DeLuca to do the surgery! Call Dr. DeLuca!"

Dr. DeLuca was the best cardiac surgeon at the Moretti family hospital.

He generally only took special cases at Adrian's request.

"He's busy."

Adrian's voice turned hard.

"Because of what you did, Bianca had an acute stress reaction. Dr. DeLuca is examining her."

I felt like I'd been hit by lightning.

Bianca was frightened, and that was enough to summon the best cardiac surgeon in the city.

Meanwhile my mother lay in an emergency room, and it didn't matter at all.

"Adrian, do you have a heart left?"

I screamed until my throat burned.

"Your mother was insane and so are you!"

Adrian finally lost his patience.