Chapter 12

DARIAN

The door shut behind me with a quiet click, but the sound echoed in my head like a shot fired too late.

I stood outside her room, with my fists tight and chest stiff. The sterile hallway buzzed around me, white lights, quiet nurses, cold tile and nothing about it felt real.

My pulse hadn’t calmed since we brought her in.

She was still unconscious. Pale and hooked to monitors that blinked too slow for my comfort. I’d seen men bleed out in minutes and watched stronger people collapse from less. But none of it shook me like seeing her fold in my arms like she weighed nothing at all, the image of her collapsing into my arms wouldn’t leave me.

Zaria.

The woman I bought to destroy.

Now lying behind that door like a glass cracked beyond repair.

I heard footsteps and turned. Felix was approaching, casual as ever with a clipboard in hand, like this was just another name on his rotation.

“Talk,” I said.

We slipped into an empty consultation room with no windows. Just two chairs, a small table, and a silence that stretched too far.

He set the clipboard down and looked at me.

“Well?” he asked, folding his arms.

I didn’t sit.

I leaned against the wall with a tightened jaw.

“What the hell is happening to her?”

He didn’t blink. “She’s collapsing under pressure.”

“No medical jargon.”

“That was the simple version.”

I stepped forward. “She passed out cold. There was blood in the sink. She hasn’t eaten in days. What aren’t you telling me?”

He lifted a brow. “What aren’t you seeing?”

“Don’t play with me, Felix.”

“And don’t pretend this is concern.” His voice was sharp now.

“You dragged her into a marriage she didn’t choose. You parade her around like a trophy. She’s not your wife, she’s your punishment.”

I went still.

“And yet here I am,” I said coldly, “Racing her to the hospital, standing in a white room listening to you lecture me about care.”

“She didn’t want you to know.”

“You’re her doctor. You should’ve told me.”

“She didn’t want you involved.”

“She’s mine.”

Felix’s eyes narrowed.

“She’s not your possession, Darian. She’s a woman you threw into a gilded cage and now you’re shocked she’s bleeding.”

I took a step closer.

“You think I don’t know what I’ve done?”

“No,” he snapped. “I think you don’t realize what it’s costing her.”

The silence between us hung thick.

“She’s malnourished. Chronically sleep-deprived. Her cortisol levels are through the roof. Her body is shutting down to protect itself, overstressed. Probably hasn’t had more than four hours of sleep in weeks. Her blood pressure’s been climbing. There are signs of internal strain and bleeding, likely from prolonged emotional trauma.”

Felix listed off in a grim. “She’s suffering from something you’ve clearly never had: exhaustion without escape.”

I looked down at my hands.

“Do you know what she’s accused of,” I muttered. “Do you know what she did.”

“She told you what you wanted to hear?” Felix shot back. “Because that’s not the woman I see everytime.”

“How long?” I asked finally, voice low. “How long has she been coming to you?”

“Eight months,” he said without hesitation. “Every two weeks. Sometimes every week if she could sneak away. Usually came in under an alias. Covered herself from head to toe. Wouldn’t even take calls while she was in the building.”

“And you didn’t think I deserved to know?”

“She asked me not to tell you,” he said. “And unlike you, I keep my promises.”

I clenched my jaw.

“You don’t get to stand there and act holier-than-thou,” I growled. “You may be her doctor, but she’s my wife.”

He didn’t flinch.

“And yet somehow,” Felix said slowly, “She was dying under your roof and you didn’t even notice.”

I opened my mouth to respond, then shut it.

Because I didn’t have an answer.

“She betrayed my brother. Gave away company files and the next day…Roman’s dead and she vanishes.”

“Are you sure?”

“She was there.”

“And have you ever asked her what happened, beyond what you assumed?”

I didn’t respond and dragged a hand through my hair.

“She was a name in a dossier when I found her again,” I said. “She was supposed to rot in chains. I bought her to make her pay. Not to… end up in a hospital bed.”

“Yet here we are.”

“She was colder than I remembered…numb…but strong. I thought she could handle it.”

“She was handling it,” Felix said bitterly. “Until your version of revenge started carving away at her piece by piece.”

“I didn’t touch her,” I muttered.

“You didn’t have to,” Felix snapped. “You fed the press lies. You made her play happy wife. You turned her into a doll and left her to crack under the lights.”

“She was guilty.”

“She was silent, it's not the same thing.”

The words hung in the air.

“I’ve seen women lie to survive, Darian,” he said. “And I’ve seen women who shut down because no one would believe them if they screamed.”

I rubbed my forehead, feeling the weight of it all press harder.

“She collapsed in my arms,” I murmured. “I didn’t expect that.”

“No one expects a human being to break,” Felix said. “Until they do.”

A nurse knocked once and stepped in. “Dr. Felix?”

He turned. “Yes?”

“She’s stabilizing but still unconscious. But she murmured something.”

We both stiffened.

The nurse hesitated. “A name.”

Felix’s jaw twitched. “What name?”

“Leo.”

I looked up sharply. “Leo?”

The nurse glanced between us. “It was quiet. She said something about telling you to keep him safe… if he's okay once…maybe twice.”

“Does that name mean anything?” I asked Felix, slowly.

He said nothing.

“You know something.”

“She’s not ready for this conversation,” he said carefully.

“But I am.”

“You’re not the one bleeding in that bed.”

“No, but I am the one she’s lying to.”

“She’s protecting something.”

I stepped forward. “Tell me what.”

Felix looked me in the eye.

“No.”