Chapter 4

“Baby… Mommy couldn't protect you...”

The paramedic, with tears in his eyes, came over to pull me up gently.

“Ma'am, please... Stay strong...”

I don't know how much time had passed when the ER doors suddenly opened from the inside.

Two rows of heavily armed bodyguards rushed out to line up on both sides. Then black umbrellas opened, forming a snow-free corridor down the steps.

A pair of custom Italian handmade leather shoes stepped onto the stairs.

Brett wore a solid black trench coat. His dark frame towered over the entrance, radiating cold authority.

Sophia snuggled tightly into his embrace, her head wrapped in an exaggerated amount of gauze.

“Darling, it was this woman,” Sophia pointed at me as I sat on the freezing steps, her voice dripping with grievance. “She tried to extort me, and then she attacked me like an animal! Look at my ear! She nearly bit it off!”

Brett frowned.

“Dispose of her,” he ordered the men behind him, his voice ice-cold. “Throw the corpse into the river and leave no trace behind. You can't even stop a rabid dog. What the hell am I paying you for?”

Several bodyguards immediately drew suppressed handguns. The sound of bullets being chambered echoed with terrifying clarity in the night air.

I didn't move or raise my head to look at him. I just lay numbly on the stretcher, completely hollowed out.

Enraged by my silence, Sophia stepped forward and kicked me hard right in the stomach.

“Stop pretending to be dead! Where was all this silence when you were begging for mercy earlier?!”

The kick landed with immense force. My body slumped to the side, and the blood-covered phone in my lap tumbled out, rolling right to Brett’s feet.

As Brett's careless gaze swept down, it landed on my blood-soaked lower body and on the agony-filled hollowness in my eyes.

His entire body suddenly froze.

“Erin?”

He shoved Sophia out of his arms, the sudden movement so violent that Sophia slammed hard onto the ground. His knees gave out, and he dropped to his knees right beside me.

“Erin... why are you here...? Weren't you resting at home with the baby?”

Sophia scrambled up from the ground, her face full of sheer disbelief.

“Darling, you've got the wrong person! She's just a crazy woman trying to scam money—”

A resounding, bone-shattering slap sounded.

Brett delivered a backhand straight across Sophia’s face, sending her flying to the ground.

Half of Sophia’s face instantly swelled up as she spat out blood mixed with broken teeth. Terrified, she clutched her face, too frightened to even utter a sound.

Brett reached out a hand, desperate to touch me, but looking at the wet pool of blood coating the ground beneath me, his fingertips trembled uncontrollably.

“The baby... Where is our baby...?”