Kneel

A suffocating silence instantly blanketed the VIP lobby.

The hospital director held his breath. The nurses exchanged horrified glances.

Ordering a Rafael Navarro to kneel? That was the same as digging one's own grave.

"Rafael, don't!" Chloe shrieked, pulling the man's jacket sleeve in panic. "You cannot kneel before this wretch!"

"Your position!"

"Your dignity!"

"Be quiet, Chloe." Rafael's voice was as cold as ice, but his eyes radiated a storm ready to destroy everything in the room.

Rafael stared at me.

His gaze seemed to want to strip the flesh from my bones.

Yet I did not flinch.

I crossed my legs, twirling the pen in my hand casually.

"Twenty seconds," I said while glancing at the watch on my wrist. "Your child's time keeps running, Mister Navarro."

The muscles of Rafael's jaw protruded.

His knuckles turned white from clenching too hard.

Slowly, the arrogant man who had never bowed to anyone...

Bent one knee.

His knee touched the marble floor with a soft sound that felt like a bomb explosion in my ears.

Chloe covered her mouth, crying hysterically at the sight of the man she was proud of falling.

"Please," Rafael's voice came out hoarse, filled with a pride shattered into pieces.

"Save my son."

I raised the medical records folder in my hand, concealing the wide sardonic smile spreading across my lips.

This sensation of victory was extraordinarily sweet.

Sweeter than any honey in this world.

Once I had knelt on a floor just as cold, begging for his love.

Now he was kneeling to beg me for a life.

This, was extraordinary.

"Good," I said flatly. I tossed the folder toward my assistant.

"Anya, prepare the contract."

I stood, staring at Rafael who was still kneeling with a hardened jaw.

"The initial evaluation f*e is 50 million dollars," I said coldly. "Paid upfront. Non-refundable."

Chloe's eyes went wide. Her tears stopped instantly. "50 million dollars? Just for an evaluation?! You are robbing us?"

"That is the price for the insolence of your filthy mouth," I returned without mercy.

Rafael rose slowly.

He brushed imaginary dust from the knees of his jacket.

His aura turned lethal once more.

"The money will be transferred within five minutes," Rafael hissed sharply.

"If you fail to save him, Doctor, I will sever your head with my own hands."

I stepped forward.

Close enough that he could catch the scent of my perfume.

"Make sure the money comes through, Mister Navarro." I whispered as cold as ice before his face.

"Or your child will be nothing but a corpse by tomorrow morning."

He could threaten me.

So I could threaten him.

I turned, stepping into my private elevator.

The steel doors closed, separating me from the murderous gaze of my ex-husband.

***

I let out a long breath as the elevator descended toward the main lobby.

That evaluation had concluded quickly.

Too quickly for a price of 50 million dollars.

Whose result was nothing more than a single sheet of paper.

My hands, which I had kept hidden inside the pockets of my white coat this whole time, were trembling slightly.

Not from fear.

But from intoxicating adrenaline.

This revenge felt like a drug.

So addictive!

It was not that I was laughing over the suffering of a critically ill one-year-old boy.

It was only that the child...

He was karma for his parents.

And I still wanted to save him.

To remind Rafael and Chloe that karma would follow them for the rest of their lives.

The elevator doors opened.

I stepped out into the quieter corridor of the hospital's main wing.

I had to collect Leo from the executive waiting room before returning to the penthouse.

However, my steps halted as my eyes caught the sight of a tall figure in a black suit walking rapidly from the direction of the VIP wing toward the same corridor.

Rafael.

The man walked with wide, heavy strides.

I could see from a distance how tense his shoulders were.

His fury emanated like a dark cloud.

He must have just left Chloe upstairs to get some air, or perhaps to devise a plan to destroy me.

I stepped aside behind a large marble pillar, watching him in silence.

Thud!

Rafael's steps halted abruptly.

I held my breath.

Someone had just collided with the man's long legs.

A Rubik's cube was flung and fell clattering to the corridor floor.

"Out of the way!"

Rafael's rough growl echoed through the corridor.

His voice was full of fury ready to explode.

He looked down, poised to curse whoever had dared to obstruct his path.

My heart leapt to my throat when I saw who had collided with him.

It was Leo.

My son, just four years old, stood there, rubbing his forehead that had knocked against Rafael's knee.

I was already prepared to run out from behind the pillar to pull my child away from that monster.

Yet, my reaction was outpaced by what happened next.

Rafael's string of curses suddenly lodged in his throat.

The giant of a man who knew no fear abruptly stiffened like a statue.

From where I stood, I could see Rafael's expression change drastically.

His fury vanished, replaced by an overwhelmingly powerful shock.

Leo did not cry.

He did not appear frightened in the least.

On the contrary, my son looked up.

He stared at Rafael with his small arrogant face, exactly the way I had stared at the man on the floor above.

And in that instant, the gazes of father and son collided.

Rafael's emerald green eyes met an identical pair of emerald green eyes on Leo's small face.

A living replica of a past he believed had died.

Leo tilted his head slightly. His expression was flat yet both his eyebrows angled sharply downward.

"You are blocking my way, Mister," Leo said.

My son's voice sounded perfectly flat and calm.

No tremor.

Very much like Rafael's own manner of speaking.

Rafael's hands, clenched at his sides, began to tremble violently.

The arrogant man stepped back one stumbling pace, as though he had just seen a ghost in broad daylight.

His breathing quickened.

I smiled thinly from behind the shadow of the pillar.

Welcome to your hell, Rafael.