When I started my husband Piers Stephens's car, I activated the navigation system. "Take me home."
"Navigating to 'Family of Three.'"
The unfamiliar address caught me off guard.
Then I remembered the surprise he'd promised when he found out I was pregnant, and I smiled.
Four years of marriage. Three miscarriages.
This time, we would finally become the family of three we'd always dreamed of.
At a red light, a notification flashed across my phone.
"Stephens Corp CEO Piers Stephens critically injured!"
My heart seized. I tapped the headline immediately.
"Stephens Corp CEO gravely wounded after heroic rescue. Condition critical..."
A ringing filled my ears. Tears blurred my vision.
No. He was going to be fine.
We were about to have our baby. Our child and I couldn't lose him.
I called him ninety-nine times. No answer.
I pulled up his location and found he was at the address the navigation had mentioned: "Family of Three."
Confusion cut through my panic. Why wasn't he at a hospital?
On the hundredth call, he finally picked up. He said he needed a million dollars for surgery.
I'd just arrived at the neighborhood and decided to give it to him in person.
But as I reached the front door, I heard his voice.
"One fake news story, and the last million is about to land. All her assets are yours now."
Piers Stephens stood perfectly unharmed, his arms wrapped around my stepsister Julie Harding, pressing a kiss to her swollen belly.
"Once she signs the divorce papers, we'll be a real family of three."
Julie laughed, sweet and coy. "That idiot. You could put anything in front of her and she'd sign it. The asset transfers, the consent form to pull the plug on her mother..."
Bile surged up my throat. I clamped both hands over my mouth.
So that was his "heroic rescue."
The man I'd loved for four years hadn't just betrayed me. He'd killed my mother.
In that moment, I finally woke up.
What he didn't know was that the transfer agreement contained a clause.
The moment we divorced, every asset reverted to me automatically.
I wiped my tears and called my grandmother.
"I'm pregnant, but he's betrayed me. In one week, I'm leaving him and keeping this baby."
...
I sat in the car, silently repeating the name of the destination.
"Family of Three."
Four years of marriage. Three losses that had shattered us to the core.
The first time, days before my due date, I stepped on a loose screw and tumbled down the stairs. That same night, Piers fired every servant in the house, his eyes red-rimmed with fury.
The second time, at eight months, a neighbor's dog went berserk and lunged at my belly. By the next morning, Piers had made that family vanish without a trace.
The third time, a car accident nearly destroyed my ability to ever conceive again. Piers brought in a top-tier legal team and put the driver behind bars for life.
Yet none of it eased the grief that consumed him.
Every time I got pregnant, he would set up the nursery with his own hands. Every time I miscarried, I could hear him behind that closed door, choking back sobs he thought I couldn't hear.
Now I was pregnant again.
At a red light, my phone buzzed.
I glanced down casually, and my pupils contracted.
BREAKING: Stephens Corp CEO Piers Stephens critically injured!
My hands shook as I tapped through to the article. "Stephens Corp CEO gravely wounded after heroic rescue. Condition critical."
Cold washed through my entire body. A low ringing filled my ears.
Memories flashed before my eyes: the way he'd cried before I did when I accepted his proposal. The way he'd held himself together to comfort me after each miscarriage, only to fall apart when he thought he was alone. The way he'd wanted to hold me when he learned I was pregnant again, but stopped himself, terrified he might hurt me...
Was our baby going to grow up without a father?
Was our dream of becoming a family of three going to die before it ever began?
"No... please, no..."
A blaring horn pierced the air behind me. The light had turned green.
I pulled the car to the curb and dialed his number over and over, frantic.
Ninety-nine calls. Not a single answer.
On the verge of collapse, I suddenly remembered I'd set up location sharing on his phone.
I pulled up his coordinates, and the pin dropped on the navigation's destination: Family of Three.
My heart sank like a stone.
Had he been hurt while setting up my surprise?
Then why hadn't he gone to a hospital?
I started the engine and floored the accelerator.
No matter what it cost, I would not let anything happen to him.
I'd barely pulled up outside the gated community when the hundredth call finally connected.
"Piers! I saw the news. How bad is it?"
"I'm okay." His voice was barely a thread. "I'm sorry. You're pregnant... I didn't want you to worry."
Tears splashed onto the steering wheel. I couldn't speak through the sobs.
Even now, even like this, he was comforting me.
"Sweetheart, I'm about to go into surgery. I need a million dollars for the operation."
The line went dead.
I didn't stop to think. I was about to transfer the money when the location screen, still open on my phone, made me freeze.
On the map, two pins sat nearly on top of each other.
Which meant that call had come from the villa just ahead.
How could he possibly have surgery here?
My fear peaked. I threw the car door open and ran.
I had to see with my own eyes that he was safe.
But the moment I reached the villa's entrance, I heard Piers Stephens's voice. And he was laughing.
"One fake news story, and the last million is about to land. All her assets are yours now. We can take our baby and finally be a real family of three."
Through the gap in the half-open door, I saw Piers Stephens with his arms around a woman. Not a scratch on him.
The world tilted. My first instinct, pathetically, was to make excuses for him.
Could there be some misunderstanding?
Then he leaned down and kissed her on the lips, and every pitiful illusion I'd been clinging to shattered.
The woman let out a soft, satisfied hum. "She's still so easy to fool. Last time she literally saw me run her down, and you told her she was remembering it wrong, and she actually believed you!"
Every drop of blood in my body turned to ice.
That voice. I would know it if I were dead.
My stepsister. Julie Harding.
A crushing ache spread through my chest. I stared at Piers, unable to comprehend what I was seeing.
He knew better than anyone what Julie Harding had done to me.
Chapter 2"This miscarriage should be my turn," Julie pouted, her voice dripping with petulance. "You handled the first two. I should get the next two. That's only fair!"
Piers pinched her nose and smiled. "Whatever you want."
I bit down on my lip so hard I tasted blood, swallowing the scream clawing up my throat.
Every miscarriage had been orchestrated. Every single one.
The bone-deep agony of losing my children was nothing more than a scoreboard in their sick little game.
During the car accident that caused my third miscarriage, I had seen Julie. I knew I'd seen her.
But when I woke up, Piers swore my memory was scrambled from the trauma.
And I believed him. I believed he would never lie to me about something like that.
Reality delivered the cruelest blow imaginable.
He hadn't just lied. He was the one who murdered my children.
Piers leaned down and pressed his lips to Julie's belly, his eyes shining with a tenderness I had never once seen directed at me.
"Once she signs the divorce papers, we'll be a real family of three."
Julie let out a derisive laugh. "That idiot signs whatever you put in front of her. Asset transfer agreements, the consent form to withdraw her mother's life support. All of it."
Something detonated inside my skull.
Five years ago, Julie had run my mother down and left her in a vegetative state.
I had poured every ounce of myself into caring for her, but two years later her organs failed and she was gone.
On all those sleepless nights when I lay awake drowning in guilt, convinced I hadn't done enough, it was Piers who held me close and told me it wasn't my fault.
Now they were telling me her death was their design too.
He tricked me into signing away my mother's life.
Rage and despair shattered every last thread of restraint. I slammed the door open, seized Julie's wrist, and squeezed. "Say that again. Was it true?"
Julie shrieked. "Geraldine! You're hurting me!"
Piers's expression darkened. He shoved me away without hesitation.
My lower back cracked against the edge of the table. White-hot pain shot up my spine.
He looked down at me with undisguised irritation. "Geraldine. Stop making a scene."
"Making a scene?" My voice shook. "Then explain. The consent form to withdraw life support. My babies. Were you two behind all of it? And weren't you supposed to be in a car accident?"
"You've been too anxious lately. You're having delusions." Piers furrowed his brow, his concern as convincing as it was hollow. "Losing the baby devastated me just as much as it did you. And there was no consent form. That never happened."
"As for the accident," he sighed, the picture of patient indulgence, "you ruined the surprise, but I know you didn't mean to. I don't blame you."
His gaze was steady and open, as though I were the unreasonable one.
So this was how he saw me. Even caught red-handed, he was certain I was stupid enough to be talked out of what I'd heard with my own ears.
Tears spilled before I could stop them. A second later, a vicious cramp tore through my lower abdomen.
The familiar terror of miscarriage flooded every nerve. "The baby... call an ambulance!"
Piers's voice turned cold and accusing. "This is exactly why you can never carry to term. You're too impulsive."
"No..." The pain shredded my words. Warmth spread between my legs, and I looked down to see blood.
His pupils contracted. Finally, with a reluctant frown, he reached for his phone.
But Julie let out a wail. "Piers! My stomach hurts so badly. Did Geraldine push me? Is that why—"
The color drained from his face. He hurled the phone aside. "I'm taking you to the hospital!"
He scooped her into his arms and bolted for the door. He never looked back.
But I saw his face before he turned. The panic. The anguish. All of it real.
None of it for me.
The door slammed shut, and the last fragile shard of hope inside me shattered into dust.
We were both at risk of losing a pregnancy. For me, he had nothing but blame and impatience. For Julie, he gave every ounce of worry and devotion he possessed.
Through the blinding pain, hatred kept me conscious. I dragged my phone closer and dialed emergency services, then called my attorney.
"Draw up a divorce agreement. And hire someone to investigate Piers Stephens." My voice trembled, but it did not waver. "One week. That's all I need to take everything he has."
Chapter 3The ambulance arrived in time. The baby survived.
I spent three days in the hospital. It wasn't until the day I was discharged that I received a call from Piers.
"You've had your little tantrum long enough, haven't you? There's a reception tonight. You're coming with me."
So that was it. Three days of complete silence, and he'd assumed I was sulking. That the cold shoulder was deliberate punishment for my so-called rebellion.
I wanted to refuse, but the hostess, Mrs. Xu, had been one of my mother's closest friends. I couldn't not go.
At the reception, Piers played his usual role to perfection, intercepting every glass of wine offered my way. The women around us practically swooned.
"Mr. Stephens is so attentive. He never lets his wife touch a single drop."
"Remember that fool who tried to pressure Mrs. Stephens into drinking? He flipped on the spot. Who would've guessed that a man with such impeccable composure would put someone in the hospital over it?"
"That's what they say. Love your wife and the fortune follows. Just look at how far Stephens Corp has come!"
I smiled through all of it, but the smile never reached my eyes.
The devotion they envied was nothing more than a carefully constructed illusion. Only I knew what filthy betrayal and calculation lurked behind it.
The words had barely settled when Julie glided over on the arm of a date.
"Hey, sis. Hey, brother-in-law." She leaned into her companion's shoulder with practiced intimacy. "Let me introduce you. This is my boyfriend."
Piers's smile froze. A sharp crack split the air as the champagne flute shattered in his bare hand.
He seized Julie by the arm and wrenched her away from the man. "Come with me."
"Piers, what are you doing?!"
He said nothing. His face was ashen as he dragged her away, leaving the entire room buzzing.
I had no interest in cleaning up their mess. I slipped out during the commotion.
The evening breeze on the terrace swept away the noise of the banquet hall, but it carried something else: voices, sharp and furious, from just around the corner.
"Weren't you the one who wanted to draw the line? So why do you care what I do?!"
Piers's voice was glacial. "You're carrying my child, and you have the nerve to parade around with another man?"
"So what? My boyfriend doesn't mind. He'll raise this baby as his own!"
"Over my dead body." Piers turned to go after the man, but stopped short when he spotted me standing in the shadows.
Something shifted behind his eyes. He glanced at Julie, then closed the distance between us in one stride and crushed his mouth against mine.
The kiss was brutal and cold. Revulsion rippled through me like an electric shock.
I fought to pull away, but his arm locked around my waist like a vise.
Humiliation crashed over me in waves. He was using me. Using me as a prop to provoke Julie.
Right on cue, a choked sob rose behind him. Emboldened, Piers pressed harder, yanking down my dress strap and shoving his hand beneath the fabric.
"Let go of me!" I snarled, but he only tightened his grip.
Then came the sound of approaching chaos.
Julie had brought an audience. A crowd of guests surged toward the terrace, her trembling voice leading the charge. "I saw a man drag my sister out here! Someone please help her!"
Piers froze. He fumbled to pull my gown back into place and stepped in front of me.
"Get out!"
The guests recognized him, and nervous laughter rippled through the group.
"Oh, it's just Mr. Stephens!"
"The lovebirds were having a moment. Ms. Harding, you had us worried over nothing!"
Julie's tears streamed freely. "I'm so sorry, sis. I was just worried about you..."
Piers saw right through her jealousy, and he couldn't hide his satisfaction. "That's enough. Don't cause a scene next time."
Before he could finish, Julie's eyes rolled back and she collapsed.
"Julie!" His pupils contracted. The cold indifference he'd worn while using me vanished in an instant, replaced by raw panic and desperate tenderness.
He didn't hesitate for a single second. He dropped me, scooped Julie into his arms, and charged out of the banquet hall. "Call an ambulance!"
The moment he let go, my gown slipped free and pooled around me. Bare skin flashed under the chandelier light.
I grabbed for the fabric, but it was already too late.
Camera flashes erupted like a hailstorm, so blinding I couldn't keep my eyes open.
"Stop! Don't!" I shielded myself uselessly. "Stop taking pictures!"
No one listened. I clutched the gown to my body, fingernails digging through the fabric and into my palms.
Through the relentless storm of shutter clicks, I stared in the direction Piers had disappeared, and the hatred inside me grew like thorned vines wrapping around every rib.
Piers Stephens. Everything you did to me tonight, I will repay tenfold in three days.
Chapter 4The whispers and camera shutters wove together into a suffocating net, tightening around me until I could barely breathe.
"That's enough!" A cool, commanding male voice cut through the chaos and tore the net wide open.
I turned toward the sound. "Joseph Simmons?"
He stood tall in a perfectly tailored suit, every line of him sharp and composed, his features carrying an air of cold refinement.
His bodyguards cleared the crowd in seconds. He slipped off his jacket and draped it over my shoulders. "Let me get you out of here."
I blinked, then nodded.
He swept me up in his arms and carried me all the way to his car.
Warm air flooded the interior, chasing the chill from my skin. He handed me a bottle of water, his voice low and gentle. "Those photos won't see the light of day, Ms. Harding. You have my word."
My throat was raw. "Thank you."
He let out a quiet laugh. "Don't mention it. I simply couldn't stand watching someone who once beat me fall this low."
Joseph's company had always been Stephens Corp's fiercest rival. Years ago, I'd snatched several key projects right out from under him. After I stepped back from the company, his firm had become the thorn in Piers's side that he could never pull free.
The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. This man could help me.
The water bottle crackled under my grip. I knew that once I opened my mouth, there would be no turning back.
But then I thought of my mother's death. The three babies I'd never gotten to hold. Every last humiliation I'd swallowed.
My gaze hardened. "Mr. Simmons, I want to propose a partnership."
"A partnership?" Joseph raised an eyebrow.
I summoned every ounce of courage I had left, burning my bridges behind me. "I have intimate knowledge of Stephens Corp's lifelines and criminal evidence against Piers Stephens. I can help you dismantle his empire."
"In return, you help me leave him with nothing."
"Why me?" he asked.
I knew the answer all too well. Evidence meant nothing against power.
Piers's roots ran deep, and I had no one behind me. Not a single soul. Not even my own family would lift a finger.
When Julie ran over my mother and left her in a vegetative state, I'd taken her to court. My father, using his authority as her husband, had signed a victim's pardon letter on my mother's behalf and gotten Julie off scot-free. Even at my mother's funeral, he'd stood there defending Julie, scolding me in front of everyone for refusing to let the past go.
The only person I could think of who had both the means and the motive to go toe-to-toe with Piers was Joseph Simmons.
A bitter smile twisted my lips. "You're the only chance I have."
Joseph didn't press further. His gaze locked onto mine, sharp as a hawk's. "I'll help you. But in exchange, you do one thing for me. No questions asked."
"What is it?" I asked, guard instantly up.
The corner of his mouth curved. "I'll tell you when the time comes."
I drew a deep breath. I had nothing left to lose. What was there to be afraid of?
"Deal."
When I got home and pushed open the door, I was met with Piers's dark, thunderous expression.
"Where the hell have you been?" His tone was sharp. "You had a wardrobe malfunction on camera and then you just wander off? Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is?"
I scoffed. "You're the one who set me up. She's the one who made sure everyone was there to watch. And you both walked out and left me behind. But somehow I'm the one who should be embarrassed?"
He had nothing to say to that. After a long pause, his voice softened. "About what happened earlier. Julie and I want to take you to dinner to make it up to you. Tomorrow—"
"No need." I cut him off and turned to leave, but his hand clamped down on my shoulder.
Piers was clearly losing patience with my attitude. He forced his temper down, barely. "I know you're upset. But Julie is young. I can't just abandon her. If it really bothers you, I'll keep my distance from her after this one dinner. All right?"
"No need. It doesn't bother me." My voice was flat.
"It doesn't bother you?" Whatever patience he had left snapped. "Stop throwing tantrums! Julie is pregnant. Don't go upsetting her. You're coming to dinner tomorrow, and that's final. Are we clear?"
I said nothing. My hand drifted to my own stomach.
I was pregnant too.
But in his eyes, only Julie's feelings mattered. Mine weren't even worth considering.
Cold fury churned deep inside me, wave after wave. But then I thought of my agreement with Joseph, and I swallowed it down.
It was just one dinner.
I'd think of it as their last supper.
Chapter 5The next evening, Piers drove me to the restaurant himself.
When I pushed open the door to the private dining room, I found my father sitting beside Julie.
He was gently adjusting a hair clip for her, his expression soft with a tenderness I hadn't seen directed at me in years.
The moment he noticed me, the smile vanished. All that remained in his eyes was disgust.
I was long accustomed to that look.
There was a time when I'd been his little princess too.
That ended when my mother caught him cheating. Julie's mother and her daughter staged a dramatic exit, faking a car accident to make my father believe my mother's confrontation had nearly killed them.
From that day on, he despised my mother. And his love shifted entirely.
He skipped my graduation but drove Julie to and from school without fail, rain or shine. He forgot my birthday every year but could recite everything she'd eaten on any given day. He never had a kind word for me, yet he showered praise on every single one of her social media posts.
Now, I couldn't feel even a trace of fatherly love from him. Not a trace.
Throughout dinner, my father and Piers orbited Julie like satellites. Laughter, conversation, warmth. I sat among them like a ghost.
"Here, sweetheart, Daddy brought you something special!" He patted Julie's arm with a beaming smile. "To keep you and the baby safe!"
He reached into his pocket and produced a jade pendant on a silk cord. The surface was smooth and luminous, etched with a delicate pattern meant to ward off harm.
My entire body went rigid.
That was my mother's pendant.
Years ago, when she struggled to conceive, she had climbed to a mountaintop shrine to pray for it. Nine hundred and ninety-nine stone steps. Nine hundred and ninety-nine prostrations. She split her forehead open. Her knees were raw and bloody by the time she reached the top.
After I was born, she gave the pendant to me.
After the accident, I placed it around her neck and prayed it would keep her safe. It stayed there until the day she died.
And now it was a gift from my father to Julie.
"That belonged to my mother!"
"She's dead. What good is a pendant to a corpse?" My father shot me a cold glare. "Giving it to Julie is an honor it doesn't deserve."
He draped it around Julie's neck as he spoke.
Blood rushed to my head. I stared at him and forced every word through clenched teeth. "Do you even know whose child she's carrying?"
His expression froze. His eyes darted away.
That reaction told me everything.
He knew the baby was Piers's. And he'd been helping them deceive me.
"Daddy, I don't need it, really..." Julie's eyes reddened as she reached to take the pendant off.
Piers caught her hand to stop her, then turned to me with a look of reproach. "Geraldine, can't you just behave yourself?"
"Behave?" I laughed. "You steal my dead mother's keepsake, and I'm the one who needs to behave?"
I couldn't hold back any longer. I reached out and snatched the pendant back.
But my father grabbed the silk cord and yanked it hard.
"If you're going to make such a fuss, then nobody gets it!"
A sharp crack. The jade split into pieces and scattered across the floor.
Time stopped.
I stared at the shards. My mother had earned that pendant one prostration at a time, step by agonizing step. It had been my talisman since childhood.
Gone. Just like that.
My hands shook as I knelt to pick up the pieces. A jagged edge sliced my skin. Blood beaded on my fingertips and dripped onto the jade, mixing with the tears that fell before I could stop them.
Rage and grief nearly swallowed me whole. I lifted my head, my eyes burning red. "Remember what you did today. All of you."
I clutched the bloodstained shards and stormed out. I pressed my back against the cold door, fighting to steady the storm inside me.
Then I heard my father's voice through the door. A low, contemptuous laugh.
"Ignore her. Piers already has her assets. She won't be living the good life much longer."
The chill started in my chest and spread outward until it reached every limb, every fingertip.
So my father hadn't just known. He was an accomplice.
The last thread of love I'd held for him turned to ash in that moment.
But he was wrong. The one running out of good days wasn't me.
It was them.
Chapter 6"But Grandma Abbott fainted because of me. She's definitely going to blame me..."
Grandma? My heart seized.
"I've already taken care of things at the hospital. Don't worry."
Piers's voice was light, almost careless, but it sent ice through my fingertips.
There was a time when he'd rush to Grandma's side at the slightest sign of discomfort, refusing to leave until she was better.
Back then, he'd told me, "I love you, so of course I'll take care of the people you love."
But if everything he'd ever done for me was a lie, why would he lift a finger for Grandma?
He went on. "This isn't your fault. She's old. These things happen. And to make sure Geraldine doesn't come after you over this, I won't let the old woman wake up."
Every drop of blood in my body ran backward.
His "taking care of things" had nothing to do with getting Grandma better treatment.
He was trading her life for Julie's peace of mind.
To protect that woman, he wouldn't even spare my last living relative.
I stumbled out of the restaurant, dialing Grandma's number with shaking hands. A hospital nurse picked up. I demanded the address and raced there.
The moment I burst through the door of her room, I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Grandma lay motionless, her ashen face threaded with tubes, unconscious and utterly still.
I took her withered hand as gently as I could. The tears came instantly.
Just days ago on the phone, her voice had been strong and sure. I'll always have your back, she'd said.
Now Julie and Piers had reduced her to this. A woman her age, suffering like this because of them.
I clenched my jaw so hard pain shot through my skull, and the pain dragged me back to something resembling reason.
This was a hospital Piers had already gotten to. I had to get Grandma out. Now.
I contacted Joseph to help arrange a transfer. On my way to handle the paperwork, I ran straight into Julie.
"There you are! How did you end up here? Piers and I have been looking everywhere for you."
I didn't slow down. "Get out of my way."
I'd known the moment I showed up here, Piers would be notified. But I had no time or patience to waste on her.
She grabbed my wrist, hard. The mask slipped, and the malice in her eyes was naked. "So you found out about the old hag."
"But there's something else you definitely don't know. About your mother."
My feet stopped before I could tell them not to.
She leaned in close to my ear, her voice cold as a blade. "Your mother actually woke up before she died."
"Piers kept it from you. He injected her with drugs to keep her in a coma."
My mind detonated. I stood frozen, trembling so violently I couldn't stop.
Mom had woken up. That meant she...
"That's right." Julie read my thoughts, and the corners of her pointed mouth curled high. "She was conscious when she died."
"After the machines were shut off, she fought to breathe. Her body was like a punctured bellows. I've never seen anyone's chest heave that hard."
"She even opened her eyes. I recorded the whole thing, her eyes rolling back, all of it. Want to see?"
My chest heaved violently. Every breath felt like being flayed alive.
Was this what Mom felt in her final moments?
No. What she endured must have been a thousand times worse than this.
"You want to know how I know all this?" Julie tilted her head, her voice dripping with mock innocence. "Because I'm the one who turned off the machines."
Crack.
I put every ounce of strength in my body behind my hand and slapped her across the face. I wanted her dead. I wanted her to pay for my mother's life right then and there.
"Geraldine!"
Piers's furious roar erupted behind me. A brutal force wrenched me around, and a vicious slap crashed across my face.
"Julie is pregnant. How dare you touch her?" His voice was low and seething. "Apologize. Or I pull the plug on your grandmother's treatment right now."
Chapter 7A ringing filled my ears. I suddenly remembered a cocktail party where someone had deliberately provoked me, picking at the scar of my miscarriage. I'd thrown a glass of red wine in their face.
Back then, Piers hadn't hesitated to pull me behind him, shielding me without a second thought.
Now, for Julie's sake, the woman who'd killed my mother and left my grandmother clinging to life, he'd struck me with his own hand.
Tears fell before I could stop them. I wiped them away roughly.
This was the last time I would ever cry for him.
"I won't apologize."
His expression turned to ice. He flung a sheet of paper at me.
"Then let's see who lasts longer, you or your grandmother!"
My heart seized. It was a consent form for a bone marrow transplant. The patient line bore my grandmother's name. The diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia. The scheduled surgery time...
Right now.
His words echoed in my mind, the threat to make sure she never woke up again. I forgot everything else and sprinted toward the operating room.
Outside the surgical suite, the doctor was surrounded by bodyguards, pacing frantically.
The moment he heard footsteps, he called out past me: "Mr. Stephens! The myeloablative conditioning is already complete. If you halt the surgery now, the patient will die!"
Cold terror swept through my entire body. I collapsed hard onto the floor.
Over one slap, he'd ordered them to stop my grandmother's surgery while she lay between life and death.
Piers ignored the doctor completely, gazing down at me with leisurely composure.
Every shred of pride and stubbornness I had left shattered into dust.
My grandmother's life was in his hands. I had no choice.
I dragged myself up and walked to Julie. I lowered my head.
"I'm sorry. Please... let the surgery continue..."
Seeing me submit, Piers's expression eased slightly. He raised his hand to signal the bodyguards to let the medical team through.
His hand hadn't even dropped when Julie let out a little gasp and leaned against him, pressing her hand to her nose with a delicate frown. "Piers, the disinfectant smell in here is so strong. I feel dizzy..."
His face hardened instantly. "Get the doctors back here! And bring every nurse and physician in this hospital. I will not allow anything to happen to Julie!"
I grabbed Piers's arm. "My grandmother still needs doctors to save her life! You can't do this!"
"Julie IS the priority!" He spat the words, scooped Julie into his arms, and strode away, dragging me several feet before I lost my grip.
Within minutes, every medical professional was pulled from the operating room by force.
I scrambled to block them, begging every bodyguard who passed. "No! Please, let them stay. Save my grandmother..."
They shoved me aside. I fell and got up, fell and got up, until I had nothing left.
Behind me, the heart monitor inside the operating room began to accelerate. I stumbled to my grandmother's bedside. Her chest rose and fell in labored, shallow gasps. A grayish pallor was creeping from her fingertips inward.
"No, Grandma, no!" I screamed toward the corridor. "Help! Can someone please save my grandmother!"
No one answered.
"Grandma, what do I do..." I clutched her hand, helpless, feeling her life drain away through my fingers.
The monitor beeped faster and faster until, after one thin, broken breath rattled from her throat, it flatlined into a single, endless wail.
Grandma was gone.
The last person in this world who loved me had been taken from me too.
I didn't know how long I sat there before murmured voices drifted down the corridor.
"They pulled every doctor in the hospital over there, and it turned out to be nothing!"
"It wasn't even morning sickness. But Mr. Stephens still demanded an explanation..."
So Julie had tossed out a casual complaint about feeling dizzy, and he'd severed my grandmother's lifeline without blinking.
That was the truth behind my grandmother's senseless death.
Tears streamed down my face. I gripped her hand tighter and made a silent vow. Grandma, I will make him pay the most devastating price imaginable.
A nurse appeared in the doorway and fell silent. After a moment, she brought a clean white sheet and draped it gently over my grandmother.
I refused to let go, clinging to her hand as if holding on could somehow keep her here.
When that kind, ashen face finally disappeared beneath the white cloth, the grief I'd been holding back broke through. The whimper in my throat tore open into wrenching, gut-deep sobs.
Only after every tear had been spent did I release her hand, pull out my phone, and dial Joseph's number.
"Grandma is gone." My voice was shattered, but steady as steel. "Have the contracts ready. I'm going to destroy Stephens Corp. I won't leave him a single cent."
I hung up. Two notifications appeared on the screen at the same time.
One was a calendar reminder for the Stephens Corp anniversary gala tomorrow evening.
The other was a video from my attorney.
The moment I tapped it open, Julie's voice filled the room: "To get Piers to con Geraldine out of her money, I slept with dozens of men before I got pregnant. God only knows whose kid it is. Once the money's in hand, I'll dump him. And the baby? I'll just get rid of it."
A cold smile curved my lips. I typed back: Bring it. Attend tomorrow's gala on my behalf.
I could hardly wait to watch Piers walk straight down the road to ruin I'd paved for him.