Chapter 4

An ambulance pulled up. Adrian and Lucas ran over from the car behind it.

One of them checked Sophia's leg while the other took off his coat and wrapped it around her.

I sat slumped behind them, alone. It wasn't until the blood from my shoulder dripped into the snow that Adrian turned around.

"Elena, thank God you were with her. If anything had happened to Sophia, I don't know what I would've done."

His arms around me were as strong as ever, but I only felt colder by the second. I pushed him away with my good arm.

A paramedic saw the blood on my shoulder and ran toward me with his kit.

Lucas stepped in front of him. "Sophia inhaled smoke. Check her lungs first!"

The paramedic had no choice but to turn back. Adrian went with him and fitted the oxygen mask over Sophia's face himself.

I pressed my left hand to my shoulder, but the blood kept seeping out between my fingers.

Sophia only had a scrape on her calf. My right shoulder needed 27 stitches.

The next day, a video of her lighting a fire in a no-fire zone went viral.

The doctor said that if the beam had landed an inch or two lower, I would have lost my right arm.

Adrian didn't say anything. He bent his head and changed my dressing, his hands as gentle as they'd always been.

For a second, I almost believed he cared about me again.

The moment a cough came from the room next door, Lucas pushed my door open. "Sophia says her chest feels tight."

Adrian had a nurse send the respiratory specialist over right away, then told someone to raise the temperature in Sophia's room by about four degrees Fahrenheit.

The nurse pointed at my empty pain pump. "Mr. Holt, Ms. Grant's medication..."

"It can wait until I get back."

He spent ten minutes next door. By the time he came back, the pain had left my back soaked in sweat.

Adrian finished changing my dressing himself. Then he said, "There's a press conference soon. You're going to say you started the fire."

My blood ran cold.

"...I almost burned to death saving her."

"It's just for show. Nothing's going to happen to you. I'll take care of everything afterward."

He gently squeezed my hand. "Be good for me, okay?"

He used to squeeze my hand just like that whenever I had nightmares.

But this time, it made my stomach turn.

"I'm not taking the blame for that."

I reached for my phone to call Rachel. Adrian snatched it before I could pick it up and slipped it into his pocket.

"Cooperate today, and I promise you won't be charged."

"I didn't start that fire."

"Elena, don't make me do this."

His hand was still pressing down on my bandaged shoulder.

Lucas walked into the room with a lawyer and a livestream crew.

"The original video's been deleted. I'm going to testify that you told the staff to light that fire."

"You know it wasn't me!"

I opened my mouth to say more, but before I could get another word out, Adrian jerked his chin at the bodyguards.

"Take her over there."

My hands and feet went numb.

The bodyguards grabbed me by both arms. The wound, stitched up less than 24 hours earlier, tore open, and hot blood ran down my back.

I looked at Adrian, and suddenly I didn't want to beg him anymore.