Chapter 4

After the surgery, Riley was wheeled back to her hospital room. As the anesthesia gradually wore off, pain radiated from the incision, leaving her trembling all over. She bit her lip to keep herself from crying out.

While tending to her wounds, two nurses chatted quietly.

"Mr. Parker is so devoted to his wife. He stayed right outside the operating room the whole time. He wouldn't leave her side."

"I know! He's handsome, rich, and such a loving husband. I'm so jealous of their relationship. Miss West is one lucky woman."

Riley could no longer hold back her tears. "I'm his wife..." she whispered weakly.

The nurses froze before hurriedly leaving in embarrassment.

Silence settled over the room again, broken only by the steady drip of her IV.

Struggling to sit up, Riley tried to make her way to the bathroom. But the moment she got out of bed, her legs gave way. She collapsed against the bed frame, striking her surgical wound so hard that her vision went black with pain.

The door opened a crack, revealing Xavier standing outside. He instinctively took a step forward, but when he saw Riley struggling to get back on her feet, he forced himself to stop. Slowly withdrawing his outstretched hand, he turned and walked away.

His assistant, Daniel Reed, hurried after him, looking confused. "Mr. Parker, you obviously care about Ms. Quinn. Why don't you..."

Xavier stopped walking. "This is part of her punishment. She deserves it."

After a moment's hesitation, Daniel ventured, "But what happened back then wasn't Ms. Quinn's fault. Her parents already paid with their lives, and you've been punishing her for five years. Isn't that enough?"

Xavier remained silent for a long time before finally replying, "If I let her go, who's going to free me from all this?"

Riley remained in the hospital after that, with no one coming to visit her.

One day, the vibration of her phone startled her out of a fitful sleep. She fumbled for it and found a message from an unknown number.

[Your kidney's working great for me~ And soon, it won't just be your kidney. Everything you have, including Xavier, is going to be mine!]

Attached was a photograph showing a diamond bracelet around Lily's slender wrist.

Riley recognized it instantly. It was the last keepsake her parents had left her.

Her blood ran cold.

Without a second thought, she yanked the IV needle from her hand. Blood spattered from the back of it, but she didn't bother wiping it away as she stumbled toward Lily's room.

When she pushed open the door, Lily was lounging comfortably against her pillows. The sight of Riley brought a smug smile to her face.

"Well, if it isn't our kidney-donating hero! What brings you here? Come to visit your kidney?"

Riley stared at the bracelet on her wrist, her voice trembling. "Give it back!"

Lily ran her fingers over the diamonds, smiling innocently. "Why should I? Xavier said it looks beautiful on me, just like it did on you when you were younger. So he gave it to me."

A chill swept through Riley. She reached for the bracelet, desperate to take it back, but stopped herself at the last moment, afraid she might damage it.

Swallowing her pride, she pleaded, "That bracelet means everything to me. I'll trade you anything else for it. Whatever you want, if it's something I can give you..."

Lily tilted her head, pretending to think. "There's really nothing I want. The only thing I'm missing..." She let out a soft laugh. "Is the title of Mrs. Parker. How about you give that to me?"

Riley closed her eyes briefly before answering in a hoarse voice. "Fine. Give me back the bracelet, and you can be Mrs. Parker!"

She had barely finished speaking when the door flew open.

Xavier stood in the doorway, his expression terrifyingly dark.

"Riley Quinn, does being my wife really mean less to you than some lifeless piece of jewelry?"

Riley went still, her throat tightening. "It's the last thing... my parents left me."

"Your parents?"

Xavier gave a cold laugh, hatred surging in his eyes. He seized Lily's wrist and yanked off the bracelet.

"I almost forgot. Anything connected to your parents deserves to be destroyed!"

With that, he strode toward the window and raised his arm to throw it out.

"No!"

Riley screamed and lunged at him without thinking. The moment she collided with Xavier, the bracelet flew from his hand, and Riley lost her balance and tumbled out the window after it.

"Riley!"

Xavier's scream was almost deafening. He reached out desperately to catch her, but his fingers closed on empty air.

A sickening thud followed.

Riley landed hard on the lawn below. The bracelet broke beside her, individual diamonds pierced her palm, though she could no longer feel the pain.

Through her fading consciousness, she saw Xavier racing downstairs like a madman. He dropped to his knees beside her and gathered her into his trembling arms.

"Riley! Riley!"

There was a panic in his voice she'd never heard before. It reminded her of the fire many years ago, when he'd rushed into the burning building to find her, calling her name in exactly the same way.

"Doctor! Someone get a doctor!"

As her consciousness slipped away, a faint glimmer of hope stirred in Riley's heart.

Was he still capable of worrying about her?

Could there still be even the slightest bit of affection left in his heart?

When Riley woke again, every inch of her body ached as though she'd been crushed and put back together.

A doctor was speaking quietly to Xavier beside her hospital bed.

"Mrs. Parker has multiple fractures and damage to her internal organs. She needs plenty of rest and proper care, or she could suffer lasting complications."

"Give her the best medication," Xavier ordered coldly.

The doctor nodded and left. When Xavier turned back toward the bed, he found Riley awake and looking at him.

Their eyes met, and whatever concern had been there vanished, replaced by his familiar coldness.

"Don't think that just because I'm giving you the best medication, it means I still care about you."

He approached the bed and looked down at her, his voice cruel.

"I just want to keep you alive longer. That way, I can make you suffer even more.

"From the moment your parents killed my family, our fate was sealed.

"This will never end until one of us is dead!"

Riley stared at him blankly as tears slipped silently down her cheeks.

So she'd been fooling herself again. He hadn't cared about her after all.

Slowly closing her eyes, she whispered, "Fine. Then I'll die."