Chapter 6

Celia staggered out of the banquet hall, her cheek still burning. The blood at the corner of her mouth had already dried.

She did not call the driver. She got behind the wheel herself and drove to the hospital.

While the doctor treated her wounds, she stared at herself in the mirror. One side of her face was red and swollen, the skin at her lip was split, and her eyes were laced with broken blood vessels.

She looked wrecked.

She tried to smile, but the movement pulled at the wound, and the pain made her suck in a sharp breath.

Once the doctor was done, she headed back to her car. In the parking garage, two people were waiting for her. They were Lana's parents, Gerald Crawford and Patrice Engel.

They flanked her car door, their voices pleading. "Ms. Vaughn, please, stop holding on to the title of Mrs. Keller. If not for yourself, then have some pity on us and let our Lana take your place..."

Celia looked at them coldly. "Move."

"Lana truly loves Mr. Keller. Just let them be together..."

"I said move."

She had no interest in dragging this out. She pushed past them and pulled the car door open.

The moment her foot hit the gas, Gerald threw himself at the front of the car. The dull thud came before Celia could even process what had happened. She looked up and saw him on the ground, clutching his leg and howling in pain.

Patrice screamed and threw herself down beside him. "Honey!"

Celia sat frozen, her fingers locked around the steering wheel.

He walked to the front of the car himself. It was deliberate.

There was no time to think it through. She got out of the car and got him to the emergency room.

In the hospital corridor, Lana came running. The moment she saw Celia, she did not say a word. She just swung her hand and slapped her across the face.

Celia's head snapped to the side, her ears ringing.

"Celia Vaughn!" Lana was sobbing, every inch the picture of heartbreak. "Do whatever you want to me, but why would you go after my parents?"

The bandage on Celia's cheek split open, and fresh blood seeped through, but she could not feel any of it.

"Your father threw himself at the car," she said flatly.

"If you're going to lie, at least make it convincing!" Roman's voice cut in from behind her, sharp and cold. "Why would Lana's father deliberately run into your car? Celia, when did you become this cruel?"

Celia looked at him. Whatever was left of her heart had already gone numb.

He would not even investigate. He had already decided she did it on purpose. He seemed to have forgotten entirely what it had been like when he loved her.

A doctor hurried out. "The patient has lost a significant amount of blood and needs a transfusion urgently. He's type A. Can anyone here donate?"

Lana shook her head through her tears. "I'm immediate family. I can't donate..."

Roman's gaze landed on Celia, cold and deliberate. "She's type A. She'll do it."

Celia's head snapped up. "I'm not donating."

"You hit him. You take responsibility." His eyes were dark. "If anything happens to the man in there, I won't let it go."

Celia felt the cold settle through her entire body, and her voice shook. "Are you going to do what you did last time? Threaten me with my parents' lives? Threaten me with mine?"

Something flickered in his eyes, as though the words had struck a nerve, but it lasted less than a second. He hardened again and gave the order to his bodyguards, "Hold her down. Draw the blood."

Celia was forced into the donation chair. When the needle pierced her vein, her fingertips trembled from the pain.

The blood bag filled slowly, and her awareness faded with it.

She remembered how it used to be. She was anemic, and Roman used to panic over the smallest scrape. A paper cut was enough to send him into a fit of worry.

Now, he was holding her down and draining her blood to save a man who had thrown himself at her car.

Her vision darkened in waves until she finally lost consciousness.