Chapter 2

Chapter 2

That night passed like an endless nightmare. In the stuffy hospital, the hum of medical equipment and the muffled sobs from the neighboring ward were the only sounds accompanying Ameena. Her last savings had been completely drained to pay the emergency registration f*e, while the hospital pharmacy refused to provide high-dose fever-reducing medication until the administrative bill was fully paid.

In desperation that felt crushing, Ameena was forced to drag her feet out of the hospital and toward a dimly lit corner of the city streets. She met a loan shark—a stocky man with gold teeth and calculating eyes. The interest rate he offered was suffocating, rising mercilessly high, but Ameena had no other choice. For Alby’s life, she was willing to mortgage her future. Dirty cash changed hands that very night, accompanied by her signature on a stamped document that was ready to tighten around her neck if she failed to pay on time.

The next morning, the sun had not yet fully risen when Ameena stood before the main gate of the Leonardo Residence.

The building was not merely a house, but a modern Gothic fortress standing on dozens of hectares of land, surrounded by black iron fences topped with sharp spikes and heavily guarded by men in black suits at every corner. The atmosphere around the gate was tense. Dozens of women from various backgrounds—from young girls to neatly dressed young mothers—stood nervously in line, waiting for their turns to be called. They were all after the same thing: the extraordinary payment promised by the most powerful Mafia family in the country.

Ameena straightened the loose knitted blouse she was wearing. Her plus-size body made her stand out slightly among the line of slender women. A wave of insecurity struck her chest, making her knees weak. However, the image of Alby’s pale face on the hospital bed immediately crushed all her doubts. She took a deep breath, straightened her back, and stepped inside when her name was called by the security officer.

The initial selection process took place in a spacious yet cold side hall. Two head servants stood watching with stiff gestures and sharp, judgmental eyes.

“Line up to the left for the initial physical examination! Anyone with a history of illness or tattoos on their body, please step back now!” shouted a middle-aged, gray-haired man who was later revealed to be Hugo, the residence’s senior head servant.

Standing beside him was a middle-aged woman with a stern yet elegant face, Sunny, the head housekeeper in charge of all domestic affairs in the mansion. At the far end of the room, behind a frosted glass partition, Madam Leonardo—the biological mother of Damien—sat in a red velvet chair. The elderly woman observed each participant through a monitoring screen with cold eyes, searching for the truly perfect woman to care for her beloved grandchild.

One by one, the participants were ruthlessly eliminated. Some failed because of high blood pressure, some were rejected because laboratory results showed that their breast milk had insufficient nutritional content, and others were immediately disqualified as soon as the servants examined their physical condition.

Ameena bit her lower lip. Seeing so many beautiful, ideally proportioned women being sent home in less than five minutes made her courage shrink. How could they possibly choose a fat woman like me? she thought anxiously.

“Candidate number forty-two, step forward,” Sunny called in a flat, expressionless voice.

Ameena stepped forward with her heart pounding. She was taken to a sterile room that smelled of antiseptic. There, the family doctor conducted a thorough health examination—from blood tests and heart rate checks to an examination of the quality and quantity of her breast milk production.

The atmosphere in the examination room was tense. The Leonardo family’s private doctor, a middle-aged man wearing thick glasses, stared at the laboratory results in his hands with his brows knitted together. He looked Ameena up and down, making her lower her head awkwardly.

“How is she, Doctor?” Hugo asked, also watching from the doorway.

The doctor let out a soft sigh before looking up.

“The subject’s physical condition is excellent. Her blood pressure is normal, there is no history of infectious diseases, and...” The doctor glanced at the fluid sample test results. “The quality and volume of her production are exceptionally abundant. The nutrients in it are extremely dense, far exceeding the average of the other women today.”

Behind the monitoring screen, Madam Leonardo, who had initially closed her eyes from exhaustion, slowly opened them. She nodded slightly, giving Sunny an instruction.

“Take her upstairs. My grandson has been crying all day and refuses every brand of manufactured formula. The baby needs fresh breast milk right now,” Sunny ordered Hugo.

Ameena exhaled a breath she had been holding. She had passed. Among the dozens of women who had arrived with perfect appearances, she was the one who had been chosen.

Without wasting any time, Ameena was escorted through long corridors covered with thick maroon carpets until they reached a heavily guarded west wing of the mansion. A magnificent carved wooden door opened, revealing a luxurious white-and-gold nursery. In the middle of the room, a senior nanny appeared overwhelmed as she tried to calm a baby boy who was only a few days old and was crying hysterically with a flushed face, fiercely refusing the bottle of formula being offered to him.

“Quickly, Miss Ameena. This baby hasn’t had any milk since last night,” Sunny urged, directing Ameena to sit on a plush velvet sofa.

Ameena had no time to think. Her maternal instincts immediately took over. She sat down, unbuttoned the front of her clothes, and brought the tiny red-faced baby close to her chest. As soon as he smelled the warmth and scent of human skin, the baby’s cries suddenly subsided. The tiny baby immediately became active, his little mouth searching for a source of food, and the moment Ameena’s nipple touched his lips, he began sucking strongly and greedily.

The soft sound of sucking echoed through the silent room. The baby eagerly swallowed the breast milk, his tiny fist clenched contentedly in the air, while his previously labored breathing gradually returned to normal.

Ameena smiled gently, caressing the tiny cheek of the noble baby with affection, feeling her heart warm despite the exhaustion weighing heavily on her.

Without them realizing it, at the slightly open doorway of the nursery, a tall, well-built man stood silently.

It was Damien Leonardo.

Although the gunshot wound on his body had not yet fully healed and he had to walk with a slight limp while suppressing the pain beneath the thick bandages around his chest, Damien insisted on leaving his room to see his sole heir. His face still bore bluish bruises and scratch marks on his temple from the brutal fight in the forest two days ago, yet the intimidating and cold aura surrounding him had not diminished in the slightest.

Damien stepped silently into the nursery. His sharp eyes fixed on the plus-size woman who was breastfeeding his son.

Suddenly, a strange sensation struck Damien’s head.

The air inside the room suddenly felt suffocating. His heart pounded wildly out of control—not because of his gunshot wound, but because of a vague memory that suddenly flashed through his mind. The woman’s natural scent drifted through the air, triggering a subconscious memory of that hellish night in the cold forest.

When he had lain dying on the wet ground, losing consciousness and nearly dying from dehydration. At the brink of death, he had felt the warmth of sweet liquid flowing over his cracked lips. That sucking sensation... that warmth... everything felt exactly the same.

Damien stood frozen in place. His gaze remained fixed on Ameena’s curves and the baby’s head as he nursed. His heart thundered violently, as if the half of his soul he had lost in the forest had suddenly begun screaming hysterically, making him realize that he was now standing directly before the very same woman.

Thump.