“You,” I said finally. “You can take me. I’ll repay you with myself. Use me. Hurt me if you want. Make me your servant, your slave—anything. Just bring my son back alive.”
I heard him inhale softly, like someone opening a book they’d been waiting years to read.
I expected laughter. Disconnection.
Instead, his voice came back calm, icy.
“Then it’s settled. I will save your son. And afterward, you will belong to me again. Every part of you. Everything you denied me.”
Tears slid down my face, hot and unashamed. I hadn’t known I could still bargain like this—trade myself for the life bound to mine by blood. But the truth was mercilessly clear. I had chosen safety once and lost my heart for it.
This time, I chose differently.
“I agree,” I said. “Please. Bring him home.”
“Good,” Dimitri replied. “Don’t contact me again unless you intend to honor our agreement.”
The call ended.
---
Eight hours later, they finally dragged me out. One of Dominic’s men shoved me toward the car and said flatly, “Boss says go home. Start cooking.”
Cooking.
As if I hadn’t been locked in darkness while my son screamed on a screen.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message—from Dimitri.
A location. A hospital name. A room number.
My knees nearly gave out.
My body reacted before my thoughts ever could.
I ran—straight into rain, into noise, into the blur of the city. Water streaked down my face as cars screamed past, horns blaring, lights smearing into color and chaos. My hair plastered itself to my neck, my clothes clung heavy with sweat and rain, my lungs burning as if they might split open.
When I reached the hospital room, I didn’t knock.
I shoved the door wide.
Ethan.
My baby.
He was curled small on the bed, too still, his hands wrapped thickly in layers of white bandages. He looked like my son—the boy who used to giggle whenever his fingers found piano keys—and at the same time, he looked unfamiliar, like someone pain had reshaped into a stranger.
I broke.
I fell against him, crushing him to my chest, sobs ripping out of me unchecked. My tears soaked into his hair as I clung to him.
“Ethan,” I whispered again and again. “Mama’s here. Mama didn’t leave. I’m right here, sweetheart.”
Everything rigid inside me dissolved the moment I felt his warmth.
The door creaked open.
A doctor stepped inside quietly.