Chapter Two

Fayre 

"Phoebe!"

 My hands shook violently as I pulled my daughter's limp, fragile body into my lap. She was so cold. Her lips were turning blue, her breathing shallow and ragged.

"Call an ambulance! Mitchell, call an ambulance right now!" I sobbed, looking up at my husband.

Mitchell stood frozen, his face pale, but before he could even reach for his phone, Ria let out a sharp cry and collapsed against his chest, clutching her pregnant stomach.

"Mitchell... oh god, my stomach... it hurts so bad," Ria groaned, squeezing her eyes shut. "The shock... I think something’s wrong with the baby!"

Mitchell’s eyes snapped from our unconscious daughter straight to Ria. Without a second thought, he wrapped his arms around her, completely ignoring my tears. "Ria, look at me. Breathe. I’ve got you."

"Are you blind?!" I roared, my voice cracking with pure agony. "Your daughter is unconscious on the floor, Mitchell! She’s having a severe crisis! Move your feet and help me!"

"Stop screaming at me, Fayre!" Mitchell snapped back, his ego flaring even in the middle of a nightmare. "I know how to handle my family. Elma! Take Phoebe to the car. I’m driving Ria to the clinic right now, and we’ll take Phoebe along."

"No!" I shouted, holding Phoebe tighter. "She needs an advanced life-support team immediately! Moving her ourselves without stabilization could kill her!"

"I am the head of this household, and I make the decisions," Mitchell said coldly, his voice dripping with arrogance as he lifted Ria into his arms. "You’re always exaggerating her condition just to make me feel guilty. Stop trying to control me. Elma, bring the girl."

He didn't wait. He carried Ria out the front door, leaving me on the floor with our dying child.

Elma rushed over, her face covered in tears. "Ma'am, the private ambulance... I already called them using the emergency button. They’re downstairs in the courtyard!"

"Help me lift her," I whispered, the maternal instinct overriding my panic. I used to be the lead researcher at the city's top medical institute before I sacrificed my entire career to stay home and protect my daughter. I knew exactly how critical these seconds were.

We rushed down the private elevator. The rain poured down on us the moment we stepped into the courtyard. The sirens wailed, waving through the dark night.

But as the paramedics took Phoebe from my arms, Mitchell’s car suddenly screeched to a halt right in front of the ambulance, blocking its exit.

The door flew open, and Mitchell stepped out into the rain. He looked fierce and completely untouchable. He walked straight toward me, grabbing my upper arm and pulling me flush against his chest.

The sudden proximity was suffocating. He leaned down, his lips brushing against my ear, his breath hot against the freezing rain.

"You're coming with me in the Car," he demanded, his grip tightening. "Ria is terrified. She needs a proper medical opinion on her vitals, and since you used to be a doctor, you're going to check her."

I looked at him, completely disgusted. "My daughter is in the back of that ambulance fighting for her life, and you want me to tend to your mistress?"

"She is your step-sister!" he yelled over the sound of the rain. "Don't be a heartless bitch, Fayre! If anything happens to Ria's baby because of your jealousy, I will never forgive you."

"Let go of me," I whispered.

With every ounce of strength I had left, I wrenched my arm out of his grip. I stepped back, looking at the man I had loved so blindly. "If anything happens to my daughter tonight, Mitchell... you have no idea..."

Before he could react, I turned and jumped into the back of the ambulance, slamming the doors shut in his face. The vehicle swerved around his car and roared out of the gates.

The private wing of the hospital was completely silent by the time we arrived. Phoebe had been rushed into the emergency ICU.

I sat in the hallway, my clothes soaked from the rain, my head buried in my hands.

"Well, well. Look at the pathetic, failed doctor."

I lifted my head. Ria was standing there. She didn't look like a woman who was having a pregnancy crisis. She held a cup of coffee, a cruel, triumphant smile plastered across her face.

"What are you doing here, Ria?" I asked, my voice completely dead.

"Mitchell went to talk to the chief of medicine to demand a private suite for me," Ria laughed, stepping closer until she was towering over me. She leaned down, her eyes flashing with pure malice. "I told him my back was still hurting. He’s so easily manipulated, Fayre. It’s almost sad."

"My daughter is dying in that room," I said, my fists clenching at my sides.

"Good," Ria whispered maliciously. "Because once that little brat is gone, you have absolutely nothing holding Mitchell to you. He already complains to me every single night about how miserable you make him. He despises you, Fayre."

"He is my husband."

"Not for long," she hissed, laughing hysterically under her breath. "I am going to make him sign those divorce papers, and you will be completely homeless. You gave up your career for him. You have nothing left. You better start behaving well and bowing down to me, or I’ll tell Mitchell to throw you out on the streets tonight."

"You monster," I breathed, standing up to face her.

"Call me whatever you want," Ria mocked, rubbing her pregnant belly right in my face. "But my baby is the one getting an elite prenatal team paid for by Mitchell’s millions. Your daughter? She’s just a burden to him."

The doors of the ICU swung open.

A tall man in a pristine white lab coat stepped out. He carried an aura of absolute authority, his sharp eyes scanning the hallway until they locked onto me.

Sanyi.

He was the son of my father's oldest friend, and a brilliant international specialist who had just returned from Europe.

"Fayre," Sanyi said, his voice deep and urgent as he walked straight past Ria, completely ignoring her existence. He placed a warm, steady hand on my trembling shoulder.

"Sanyi... please tell me she’s stable," I begged, clutching his coat.

Sanyi's expression darkened, a devastating sorrow filling his eyes. "Fayre... there's a severe complication. The medication we needed to stabilize her heart... the hospital’s specialized research pharmacy ran out of it. The entire local supply was shut down two weeks ago."

My heart stopped. "What? That’s impossible! My old research team was manufacturing that specific enzyme! The funding was secure for the next three years!"

"It wasn't," Sanyi whispered, his grip on my shoulder tightening as if to brace me for the blow. "The funding was abruptly withdrawn by a private corporate order. The team had to stop production immediately."

A terrible, sickening realization began to crawl up my spine.

Right at that moment, Mitchell walked into the hallway, his egoistic stride filled with dominance. "Ria, why are you out of bed? And who the hell is this guy touching my wife?"

Sanyi turned around, his eyes locking onto Mitchell with pure disgust.

"You must be Mitchell Mitchell," Sanyi said, his voice ringing with absolute authority. "The man who signed the executive order to kill the pediatric heart research project last month."

I froze. I slowly turned my head to look at my husband. "What did he just say?"

Mitchell scoffed, crossing his arms arrogantly. "It was a business decision, Fayre. The company needed to redirect those funds to a more urgent, high-priority medical matter."

"An urgent matter?" I whispered, my voice rising to a frantic, broken shriek. "What could be more urgent than the research keeping our daughter alive?!"

Ria subtly stepped back, a smirk playing on her lips.

Sanyi looked directly into my eyes, delivering the final, fatal blow. "He pulled the funding, Fayre, to build an exclusive, top-tier prenatal medical team and hire global experts... to protect Ria's pregnancy."

The hallway went completely white. My lungs refused to take in air. My child was dying inside that room because my husband had stolen the money meant for her cure... to give it to his mistress's unborn baby.

The emergency alarms inside the ICU began to blare continuously.

The red light above Phoebe's door began to flash violently.

"Doctor Sanyi! Come quickly!" a nurse screamed, throwing the doors open. "The patient's heart has stopped! She’s flatlining!"