All Chapters of The Billionaire’s Blood Debt: Ruined by My Enemy: Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

Elowen's POVBy the seventh day, the plastic armchair beside my bed had collected a thin layer of dust.Diego hadn't come back.Every morning, I watched the sliding glass door with a knot of anticipation tightening in my throat. Every time the rubber soles of hospital shoes squeaked in the hallway, my heart gave a small, foolish leap, thinking it was him.At first, I made excuses for him. I told myself his restoration agency was falling apart under the city's permit violations. I told myself he was stuck in municipal offices, arguing with inspectors, or running around job sites trying to protect his workers' paychecks. Diego was an architect with responsibilities; he couldn't drop everything just to sit in a room that smelled of antiseptic and misery.But by Wednesday afternoon, the silence had stretched too long to ignore.My phone sat on the rolling nightstand. I picked it up with shaking fingers and dialed his number.The line rang.One. Two. Three. Four. Five.Then came the mechan

Elowen's POV "Leo?" I gripped the phone, my knuckles white against the plastic case. "Where are you?" "I just got off the train at Penn Station," Leo said, his breathing hard, his words tumbling over each other against the screech of subway brakes and echoing terminal announcements. "El, what happened to you? Why the hell didn't you call me?" The raw distress in his voice hit me straight in the chest, cutting through the dull numbness that had held me all week. "I... I didn't want to bother you, Leo," I whispered, my voice breaking slightly. "You were just getting settled in Lisbon. You had your job on the docks, and you were finally away from all of this. I didn't want to drag you back into another disaster." "Drag me back?" Leo sounded incredulous, almost angry. "You're lying in a hospital, El! What kind of brother does that make me if you have to go through so

Elowen's POV Three days after Killian walked into Room 412, the transfer happened with the kind of seamless, terrifying efficiency only his money could buy. There were no delays, no paperwork disputes, and no waiting around for discharge authorizations. At seven on Thursday morning, a private transport team lifted me onto a specialized gurney, wheeled me out through a restricted service corridor, and loaded me into an executive medical ambulance. Leo stayed beside me the entire way, his duffel bag slung over his shoulder, holding my hand as we drove onto the private airfield in New Jersey. A white medical transport jet sat waiting on the tarmac, its engines idling with a low, steady rumble. The interior didn't feel like an aircraft. It looked like a mobile intensive care suite, complete with a secured hospital bed, advanced monitoring equipment, and two flight nu

--- Elowen's POVKillian didn't move. He just stood there, framed by the open terrace door, holding a small dark package tied with a clean black ribbon. His shadow spilled across the polished marble like something spilled and left to stain, cutting a dark path through the warm amber light bleeding in from the balcony lamps."Happy birthday, Elowen," he said again. His voice was low, scraped raw at the edges—the sound of a man who hadn't slept in over twenty hours and was running on nothing but will and caffeine.I stared at him from the bed, the white duvet pulled up to my waist like a shield. My hands lay motionless against the fabric, pale and useless."You said you weren't coming," I whispered. The words came out smaller than I wanted them to. Smaller than I was.Killian crossed the room. His steps were quiet against the smooth tile—deliberate, unhurried, the gait of a man who never rushed because the world waited for him. He set the small dark box on the wooden nightstand, right b

--- Elowen's POVBy the third morning after Killian left, the bright Mediterranean sun stopped feeling warm and comforting. It felt harsh and unforgiving, pouring through the sheer glass doors and lighting up every single corner of my room.The quiet routine that had kept me numb shattered at eight in the morning.Dr. Navarro arrived with Elena and a heavy metal frame that clicked and locked as they pushed it into the center of the room. The gentle leg stretches in bed were over. Today brought cold metal and real strain."Your spine has healed enough from the surgery to handle your own weight," Dr. Navarro said, looking over my latest scans on his tablet. "Today, Elowen, we see if your body is ready to stand. We see how much weight you can take."Leo sat in the armchair holding a half-empty cup of coffee. The lazy, relaxed posture he always had completely vanished the second Elena unbuckled the heavy leather straps on the frame. He leaned forward, his knuckles white, his jaw tight as