Chapter 2- The Surgery of Lies

"Lara! Get back here!" Andre's voice roared behind me like thunder through the darkness.

Blood streamed down my legs, painting crimson trails across the marble driveway where I stumbled. My ribs screamed with every desperate step I took toward the iron gates. The phone in my trembling hand buzzed violently against my bloody palm.

"Please pick up, please pick up," I gasped, watching the number flash across the cracked screen.

My savior. The only person who promised to help me escape this nightmare tonight.

Andre's heavy footsteps pounded closer behind me, shaking the ground beneath my bare feet.

"You think you can run from me, you worthless—"

The phone rang once more before my knees buckled completely beneath my weight. Concrete bit into my flesh as I crashed down hard, the phone skittering away from my desperate fingers.

"No, no, NO!" I screamed, reaching for it through the spreading pool of my own blood.

The world spun violently, colors bleeding together like watercolors in rain before everything went black.

---

Antiseptic burned my nostrils as consciousness dragged me back into hell two days later. White walls closed in around me like a tomb, machines beeping their mechanical symphony of my survival.

Leather straps cut into my wrists when I tried to move my arms frantically.

"What—where am I?" I croaked through my swollen throat, panic rising like bile.

A stone-faced nurse entered without looking at me, checking monitors with the efficiency of death. "Metropolitan General Hospital. You underwent emergency liver transplant surgery yesterday morning."

"Liver transplant?" The words hit me like physical blows, stealing my breath completely."I never consented to any surgery!"

She continued writing on her clipboard, ignoring my desperate pleas entirely. “Your husband signed all necessary documents,” she said. “As Alpha, his word is binding. In this hospital, the mate bond makes him your next of kin. His consent is yours. Surgery was performed without complications."

"My husband had no right!" I screamed, thrashing against the restraints until they drew blood.

"He can't make medical decisions for me!"

The nurse finally looked at me with cold, dead eyes. "He's your legal next of kin. Everything was done properly under the law. We obey the Alpha."

She walked out, leaving me alone with the horrifying truth crushing my chest.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway, growing closer with each thunderous beat of my heart.

 Then Andre appeared in the doorway like the devil himself, wearing his most charming smile.

"Hello, darling," he purred, stepping into the room with predatory grace. "You look much better than expected, considering everything."

"You monster!" I spat, straining against the straps until my wrists bled freely. "You butchered me while I was unconscious!"

"Butchered?" Andre laughed, the sound sharp enough to cut glass. "I saved Tasha's baby's life with your liver. You should feel honored to finally serve a purpose."

The betrayal hit me harder than any physical blow he'd ever delivered. "Tasha's baby? Your mistress needed my organ for her child?"

"Our child," he corrected with sick pride, straightening his expensive tie. "Dylan was dying, Lara.

You were already trying to leave me anyway."

"So you decided to harvest my organs instead?" Tears burned down my cheeks like acid, each drop carrying my shattered soul.

"Just a small section," he said dismissively, waving his hand. "You'll live. Though honestly, I'm disappointed you survived the procedure at all."

"I hate you," I whispered, the words carrying every ounce of venom in my broken heart.

"I know," Andre smiled, leaning down to stroke my hair with false tenderness. "But you're still my wife, and you'll stay exactly where I put you."

He turned and walked away, whistling cheerfully as if he hadn't just destroyed my entire world.

My eyes darted around the sterile room desperately, searching for any means of escape. There—on the bedside table, partially hidden beneath medical papers—a forgotten cellphone.

Fighting through waves of agony, I stretched my restrained arm toward the device, fingertips barely grazing the smooth surface. Every movement tore through my surgical wounds like molten metal, but I pushed through the pain.

Finally, my bloodied fingers closed around the phone, pulling it closer with trembling determination.

I had to try something, anything to reach the outside world beyond these walls. My memory

flashed back to those final moments before I collapsed—the number that had called me.

With desperate hope, I dialed the digits I'd memorized from seeing them flash across my own phone's screen. The same number that had tried to reach me right before Andre's betrayal destroyed everything.

My guardian angel. The person who'd promised to save me from this nightmare.

With shaking fingers, I finished dialing and held my breath as it rang.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then a voice answered, low and dangerous, filled with barely controlled fury that made my

blood freeze:

"Lara? We need to talk. Now."