Semua Bab The billionaire's secret baby : Bab 41 - Bab 49

VICTORIAPain was temporary. Power was eternal.I repeated this mantra in my mind as I adjusted the nurse's scrubs in the hospital bathroom mirror, checking my reflection for the hundredth time. The face staring back at me was different. Softer. Rounder. The work of Dr. Chen's skilled hands during three emergency surgeries over the past week.New nose. New chin. Cheekbones reduced. Lips thinned. Even my eyes looked different, colored contacts turning my distinctive grey eyes to ordinary brown.I looked nothing like Victoria Volkov. Nothing like Anna. I looked like Sarah Collins, a forgettable nursing student covering shifts at Presbyterian Hospital.Perfect.The explosion should have killed me. Would have killed me, if I hadn't planned for every contingency. The body double I'd sent in my place had died instantly, a homeless woman I'd paid handsomely for one last performance. By the time the FBI realized their mistake, I was already miles away in a private car, heading to Dr. Chen's u

LIAMThe morphine drip in my arm was supposed to keep me unconscious. Three days post-surgery for third-degree burns, and the doctors wanted me sedated while my body healed. But when Victoria's voice echoed through the hospital intercom, announcing that we were all going to die, the adrenaline cut through the drugs like a knife."Explosive devices have been planted throughout the building. They will detonate in thirty minutes..."Thirty minutes.Ava and Eli were five floors below me. In the pediatric ward. Trapped.I ripped the IV from my arm, ignoring the sharp pain and the blood that started flowing. My back screamed in agony as I swung my legs off the bed, every movement pulling at the burned skin and surgical staples holding me together."Mr. Blackstone, you can't.." A nurse rushed toward me, but I was already standing, swaying but upright."My family is downstairs. I have to get to them.""Sir, you've had major surgery. You need to stay in bed.."The lights flickered. Once. Twice

DEREKPain was nothing new to me. Two years undercover had taught me to push through bullet wounds, broken ribs, and worse. But climbing out of that ambulance with a gunshot wound in my chest, held together by nothing but kevlar and sheer stubbornness, might have been the stupidest thing I'd ever done."Agent Morrison, you need medical attention!" the paramedic shouted as I stumbled toward the police motorcade forming up behind the ambulances."That kid needs it more." I grabbed the radio from the nearest patrol car, ignoring the officer's protests. "This is FBI Special Agent Derek Morrison, badge number 7-7-4-2-9. I need immediate clearance for emergency transport to Memorial Hospital. Priority one."The radio crackled. "Agent Morrison, this is Dispatch. We're coordinating..""Coordinate faster!" I snapped, watching Ava's ambulance ahead. Through the back windows, I could see the paramedic performing chest compressions on Eli. The monitor's flat-line was visible even from here. "We'v

LIAMThe police helicopter touched down on Memorial's rooftop thirty seconds after Ava's chaotic landing. I stumbled out before the skids fully settled, my burns screaming in protest, my vision blurring from pain and medication."Eli!" I shouted over the dying rotor wash. "Where's my son?"A nurse rushed over, trying to guide me toward a wheelchair. "Mr. Blackstone, you need treatment. Your burns..""Where is my family?" I shoved past her, heading for the rooftop door.Inside, the corridors were controlled chaos. Doctors and nurses rushed past, and overhead speakers blared codes and room numbers. I grabbed the first person in scrubs I saw, a young resident with tired eyes."Four-year-old boy, just brought in by helicopter. Digoxin poisoning. Where?""Trauma Three, but sir, you can't just.."I was already running. My hospital gown flapped open in the back, my bandages pulled and leaked, but I didn't care. Down the corridor. Through double doors. Following the signs for Trauma.I burst