Chapter 18: I'll Make Sure She Rots in Prison

With that, Nathan hung up.

"Nathan! Hello?"

Nothing but a flat, endless dial tone.

Lily stood frozen, phone still pressed to her ear, a ringing silence swallowing everything around her.

Something inside her chest had just ripped clean open.

Cold air rushed through the gap.

Her whole body went numb.

But there wasn't time for grief. Not yet. Her grandmother's life was hanging by a thread, and someone had to fight for her.

Eleanor was the only person in this world who had ever loved her without conditions.

Who else is there to call?

Beatrice.

Grasping at the last option left, Lily dialed. "Mrs. Pierce something's happened to my grandmother. She's in critical condition. The hospital says Dr. Simon Hale is the only one who can save her. Please can you help?"

Beatrice sounded genuinely caught off guard. "It's not that I won't try. The Hale family has the Sterlings backing them generations of physicians, completely closed off to outsiders. I've met his mother exactly once, and that's it."

Lily's voice cracked. "I'm sorry to have bothered you." She hung up before Beatrice could say more.

The Sterlings.

Adrian.

She wiped her face with one trembling hand, forced a breath into her lungs, and pulled up his number.

The dial tone rang and rang, each cycle landing like a hammer blow against her already-shredded nerves.

Please. Please pick up.

One second before the call would have timed out

It connected.

A deep, level voice answered. "Hello."

Lily pressed a hand over her mouth, tears spilling fresh. "Mr. Sterling it's Lily. I'm so sorry to call like this, but my grandmother's in the emergency room, she needs surgery right now, and the hospital says Dr. Hale gives her the best chance, but I can't reach him, I can't get through to anyone please. Please help me."

By the end she was sobbing openly.

Hot tears dripped onto her own hand as she waited, holding her breath, for his answer.

She knew the odds were slim. But she'd never forgive herself if she didn't try.

Two seconds of silence stretched out.

Then his voice came again, calm and steady. "Which hospital. Which department emergency or cardiac center. Patient's name."

Four questions.

Each one landed like a foundation stone under her collapsing world.

Lily choked out through tears of relief, "City First People's Hospital, emergency department. Her name is Eleanor Ashford."

"I'll make the call," Adrian said simply.

The line went dead.

Lily turned and let her back hit the cold wall behind her.

There's hope.

Grandma's going to make it.

Barely two minutes later maybe less Adrian called back. Wind and engine noise rushed through the background; he was already in the car. "I'll be there in twenty minutes."

Four words. Enough to keep her upright through the worst moment of her life.

Exactly twenty minutes later, the sound of quick, deliberate footsteps echoed down the corridor.

Adrian led, tall and composed in a perfectly tailored dark overcoat, moving fast.

Behind him came a younger man in a light-colored down jacket, hair a disaster, looking like he'd been hauled straight out of bed.

Adrian crossed to Lily, his eyes lingering on her pale face for a moment before he said, low, "Dr. Hale is here."

At almost the same instant, the emergency room door swung open.

The attending doctor's face flooded with relief at the sight of him. "Dr. Hale thank god. She's unstable. We need to move fast."

Simon shrugged off his jacket, tossed it onto a plastic chair, and disappeared into the operating room behind the doctor.

The door shut again.

The red light stayed lit.

Lily turned to Adrian, voice hoarse. "Thank you. You've saved her life. I won't forget this I'll find a way to repay you."

Adrian looked at her, expression unreadable.

She started again. "Please, go ahead, you don't need to"

She didn't finish.

Something that had been building in her chest for days the exhaustion, the grief, the fear, all of it finally broke loose.

"cough cough"

Her face changed. She doubled over, a violent cough tearing through her, and a spray of dark blood came up without warning.

Everything around her tilted, blurred, sound draining away into nothing. Her body folded like a puppet with its strings cut.

The impact she braced for never came.

A strong arm caught her before she hit the floor.

She was ice-cold, eyes shut, face bloodless, a smear of red still at the corner of her mouth.

Adrian's jaw tightened. He scooped her up and carried her straight into the emergency room.

"Lily. You're finally awake."

The familiar voice pulled her back into focus. "...You?"

Nathan held her hand carefully. "Don't move you're still on an IV. Grandma's still in surgery, but no news is good news."

"The doctor said the stress ruptured blood vessels in your stomach all that emotional strain catching up with your body. You need to take care of yourself."

Lily pulled her hand free.

His voice softened, apologetic. "I didn't realize how badly Grandma was hurt. There was an emergency at the office and I didn't get the full picture in time. That's on me. I'll apologize to her the second she's awake."

Lily just looked at him, hollow. Even her anger had burned itself out somewhere in that mouthful of blood, leaving nothing behind but a cold, quiet numbness.

She said nothing.

She just watched him.

Nathan's eyes went red. "Lily, don't look at me like that. You know what Grandma means to me. I wouldn't be who I am without her. I'm going to make this right."

"Right," Lily said finally, voice barely more than a rasp. "I almost forgot it was Melissa who shoved my grandmother down those stairs. She's going to pay for that. I'll make sure of it."

A flicker of tension crossed Nathan's face, barely visible.

Right then, Ryan knocked and stepped inside, hands folded in front of him. "Melissa's kneeling in the hallway outside the ward, begging for the old lady's forgiveness."

Lily's mouth curved, cold and disbelieving.

Of course. People who kneel easily always think it counts for something.

She helped put Owen in a coma. Now she's put Grandma in surgery. And her solution is to kneel again?

If kneeling actually fixed anything, we wouldn't need courts.

Reading the contempt on Lily's face, Nathan said, "She should kneel. Whoever's at fault, Grandma should never have been dragged into it. Ryan keep an eye on her. She stays down there until Lily says otherwise."

Ryan hesitated for half a second before answering. "Understood."

He turned and left.

Nathan looked at Lily, forcing a smile. "Better now?"

Lily turned her face toward the window instead, watching the snow drift past. "No. I'm hiring a lawyer, and I'm pressing charges. She put my grandmother in an operating room. I'm making sure she goes to prison for it.”