Chapter 4

Just then, my phone rang. It was the hospital.

"Mrs. Cullen, your grandmother's heart rate has plummeted. She's in critical condition and needs emergency surgery immediately. We estimate it will cost one million dollars. Please come as soon as..."

I did not take in another word of it.

Still soaking wet, I ran from the pool without changing and hailed a cab straight to the hospital.

My grandmother lay in an ICU bed, her frail body bristling with tubes, as thin as a dead leaf.

At the sight of me, one large tear rolled from her sunken, wrinkled eye.

"Leah... sweetheart..." She stroked my hair with one cracked hand. "I don't want any more treatment. I mean it. Come home with me."

I clutched her warm, wasted fingers and shook my head hard. "No! I'll find a way. Grandma, believe me. I will save you!"

With great effort, she cupped my icy hands and breathed warm air over them.

That faint warmth of her breath made my eyes sting with tears.

The doctor drew me aside and gravely warned that they could wait only until noon the next day.

With trembling fingers, I called Scott.

And it was Elena who answered.

"He's in the shower. By the way, your grandmother is close to death, isn't she? Don't waste your time. That old hag's treatment has already cost tens of millions. Even a thoroughbred is worth more than she is."

"Elena... let me speak to him..." Clutching the phone, I swallowed my pride and pleaded with her.

"Beg me, then."

"I'm begging you."

She laughed. "I've already seen you groveling on your knees. You looked utterly pathetic.

"But begging me won't help you. Here's some good news: I'm pregnant. None of your three little bastards survived, and my child will be the Cullen family's only heir. Tell me, will Scott give his money to our child or spend it on that dying old hag?"

And with that she hung up.

I stood in the hospital corridor with the smell of disinfectant stinging my eyes.

I ran back to the mansion, where the security guard told me Mr. Cullen had taken Miss Elena to a business reception and was not home.

I covered my face, too afraid to return to the hospital, too afraid to tell my grandmother the truth: I had failed her. I had broken my promise.

Two days later, because I could not pay for the surgery, my grandmother stopped breathing in that hospital bed.

The nurse drew a white sheet over her face.

Alone, I obtained her death certificate and buried her in a public cemetery on the outskirts of the city.

The day I buried her, my lawyer brought me the final divorce decree.

The contract was over, and I walked away with nothing.

I clutched that single thin sheet and laughed until tears came.

I had just left the cemetery when a black van braked hard in front of me.

The door slid open. A man clamped a hand over my mouth and dragged me inside.

When I regained consciousness, I was bound in the lower hold of a cruise ship.

Across from me sat a man with a vicious scar on his face, who said he was Mac's brother.

"Call your husband. Tell him to trade the East Bank docks and thirty million dollars for your worthless life." He tossed me the phone and pressed a gun to my forehead.

I gave a bitter smile. "I just got divorced. You kidnapped the wrong woman."

"Enough. Call him! Or should I put a hole in your head right now?"

With nothing else for it, I dialed the number I knew by heart.

Deafening music and women's laughter filled the line, yet Scott's voice was strangely hoarse, as if he had just smoked an entire pack of cigarettes.

"What is it?"

"...I've been kidnapped. They say they want the docks and thirty million..."

Silence held for several seconds. Then he scoffed.

"Leah, you're still terrible at making up stories. Do you think I'm an idiot? Are you trying to extort more money from me?"

"No... it's true..." I closed my eyes as agony hollowed out my chest. "Scott, I never wanted your money..."

"Shut up!" he roared.

Then I heard Elena's voice on the other end. "Darling, who is it?"

"Nobody."

Beep.

The line went dead.

I laughed through the tears streaming down my face and tossed the phone back to the scarred man.

"You heard him. Kill me."

"Fuck!" The scarred man kicked me in the stomach. "Useless bitch! You've wasted my time!"

He spat, then narrowed his eyes at me.

"In that case, before you die, why don't I let my boys have some fun with you?

"A Cullen woman isn't someone you get to fuck whenever you feel like it."

He let out a lewd chuckle and unzipped his pants in front of me.

I closed my eyes in despair.

Suddenly, the entire ship lurched violently, as if something had struck it.

Then came a deafening blast.

The cruise ship split in two.

The freezing sea engulfed me within seconds.