"But Grandma Abbott fainted because of me. She's definitely going to blame me..."

Grandma? My heart seized.

"I've already taken care of things at the hospital. Don't worry."

Piers's voice was light, almost careless, but it sent ice through my fingertips.

There was a time when he'd rush to Grandma's side at the slightest sign of discomfort, refusing to leave until she was better.

Back then, he'd told me, "I love you, so of course I'll take care of the people you love."

But if everything he'd ever done for me was a lie, why would he lift a finger for Grandma?

He went on. "This isn't your fault. She's old. These things happen. And to make sure Geraldine doesn't come after you over this, I won't let the old woman wake up."

Every drop of blood in my body ran backward.

His "taking care of things" had nothing to do with getting Grandma better treatment.

He was trading her life for Julie's peace of mind.

To protect that woman, he wouldn't even spare my last living relative.

I stumbled out of the restaurant, dialing Grandma's number with shaking hands. A hospital nurse picked up. I demanded the address and raced there.

The moment I burst through the door of her room, I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Grandma lay motionless, her ashen face threaded with tubes, unconscious and utterly still.

I took her withered hand as gently as I could. The tears came instantly.

Just days ago on the phone, her voice had been strong and sure. I'll always have your back, she'd said.

Now Julie and Piers had reduced her to this. A woman her age, suffering like this because of them.

I clenched my jaw so hard pain shot through my skull, and the pain dragged me back to something resembling reason.

This was a hospital Piers had already gotten to. I had to get Grandma out. Now.

I contacted Joseph to help arrange a transfer. On my way to handle the paperwork, I ran straight into Julie.

"There you are! How did you end up here? Piers and I have been looking everywhere for you."

I didn't slow down. "Get out of my way."

I'd known the moment I showed up here, Piers would be notified. But I had no time or patience to waste on her.

She grabbed my wrist, hard. The mask slipped, and the malice in her eyes was naked. "So you found out about the old hag."

"But there's something else you definitely don't know. About your mother."

My feet stopped before I could tell them not to.

She leaned in close to my ear, her voice cold as a blade. "Your mother actually woke up before she died."

"Piers kept it from you. He injected her with drugs to keep her in a coma."

My mind detonated. I stood frozen, trembling so violently I couldn't stop.

Mom had woken up. That meant she...

"That's right." Julie read my thoughts, and the corners of her pointed mouth curled high. "She was conscious when she died."

"After the machines were shut off, she fought to breathe. Her body was like a punctured bellows. I've never seen anyone's chest heave that hard."

"She even opened her eyes. I recorded the whole thing, her eyes rolling back, all of it. Want to see?"

My chest heaved violently. Every breath felt like being flayed alive.

Was this what Mom felt in her final moments?

No. What she endured must have been a thousand times worse than this.

"You want to know how I know all this?" Julie tilted her head, her voice dripping with mock innocence. "Because I'm the one who turned off the machines."

Crack.

I put every ounce of strength in my body behind my hand and slapped her across the face. I wanted her dead. I wanted her to pay for my mother's life right then and there.

"Geraldine!"

Piers's furious roar erupted behind me. A brutal force wrenched me around, and a vicious slap crashed across my face.

"Julie is pregnant. How dare you touch her?" His voice was low and seething. "Apologize. Or I pull the plug on your grandmother's treatment right now."

A ringing filled my ears. I suddenly remembered a cocktail party where someone had deliberately provoked me, picking at the scar of my miscarriage. I'd thrown a glass of red wine in their face.

Back then, Piers hadn't hesitated to pull me behind him, shielding me without a second thought.

Now, for Julie's sake, the woman who'd killed my mother and left my grandmother clinging to life, he'd struck me with his own hand.

Tears fell before I could stop them. I wiped them away roughly.

This was the last time I would ever cry for him.

"I won't apologize."

His expression turned to ice. He flung a sheet of paper at me.

"Then let's see who lasts longer, you or your grandmother!"

My heart seized. It was a consent form for a bone marrow transplant. The patient line bore my grandmother's name. The diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia. The scheduled surgery time...

Right now.

His words echoed in my mind, the threat to make sure she never woke up again. I forgot everything else and sprinted toward the operating room.

Outside the surgical suite, the doctor was surrounded by bodyguards, pacing frantically.

The moment he heard footsteps, he called out past me: "Mr. Stephens! The myeloablative conditioning is already complete. If you halt the surgery now, the patient will die!"

Cold terror swept through my entire body. I collapsed hard onto the floor.

Over one slap, he'd ordered them to stop my grandmother's surgery while she lay between life and death.

Piers ignored the doctor completely, gazing down at me with leisurely composure.

Every shred of pride and stubbornness I had left shattered into dust.

My grandmother's life was in his hands. I had no choice.

I dragged myself up and walked to Julie. I lowered my head.

"I'm sorry. Please... let the surgery continue..."

Seeing me submit, Piers's expression eased slightly. He raised his hand to signal the bodyguards to let the medical team through.

His hand hadn't even dropped when Julie let out a little gasp and leaned against him, pressing her hand to her nose with a delicate frown. "Piers, the disinfectant smell in here is so strong. I feel dizzy..."

His face hardened instantly. "Get the doctors back here! And bring every nurse and physician in this hospital. I will not allow anything to happen to Julie!"

I grabbed Piers's arm. "My grandmother still needs doctors to save her life! You can't do this!"

"Julie IS the priority!" He spat the words, scooped Julie into his arms, and strode away, dragging me several feet before I lost my grip.

Within minutes, every medical professional was pulled from the operating room by force.

I scrambled to block them, begging every bodyguard who passed. "No! Please, let them stay. Save my grandmother..."

They shoved me aside. I fell and got up, fell and got up, until I had nothing left.

Behind me, the heart monitor inside the operating room began to accelerate. I stumbled to my grandmother's bedside. Her chest rose and fell in labored, shallow gasps. A grayish pallor was creeping from her fingertips inward.

"No, Grandma, no!" I screamed toward the corridor. "Help! Can someone please save my grandmother!"

No one answered.

"Grandma, what do I do..." I clutched her hand, helpless, feeling her life drain away through my fingers.

The monitor beeped faster and faster until, after one thin, broken breath rattled from her throat, it flatlined into a single, endless wail.

Grandma was gone.

The last person in this world who loved me had been taken from me too.

I didn't know how long I sat there before murmured voices drifted down the corridor.

"They pulled every doctor in the hospital over there, and it turned out to be nothing!"

"It wasn't even morning sickness. But Mr. Stephens still demanded an explanation..."

So Julie had tossed out a casual complaint about feeling dizzy, and he'd severed my grandmother's lifeline without blinking.

That was the truth behind my grandmother's senseless death.

Tears streamed down my face. I gripped her hand tighter and made a silent vow. Grandma, I will make him pay the most devastating price imaginable.

A nurse appeared in the doorway and fell silent. After a moment, she brought a clean white sheet and draped it gently over my grandmother.

I refused to let go, clinging to her hand as if holding on could somehow keep her here.

When that kind, ashen face finally disappeared beneath the white cloth, the grief I'd been holding back broke through. The whimper in my throat tore open into wrenching, gut-deep sobs.

Only after every tear had been spent did I release her hand, pull out my phone, and dial Joseph's number.

"Grandma is gone." My voice was shattered, but steady as steel. "Have the contracts ready. I'm going to destroy Stephens Corp. I won't leave him a single cent."

I hung up. Two notifications appeared on the screen at the same time.

One was a calendar reminder for the Stephens Corp anniversary gala tomorrow evening.

The other was a video from my attorney.

The moment I tapped it open, Julie's voice filled the room: "To get Piers to con Geraldine out of her money, I slept with dozens of men before I got pregnant. God only knows whose kid it is. Once the money's in hand, I'll dump him. And the baby? I'll just get rid of it."

A cold smile curved my lips. I typed back: Bring it. Attend tomorrow's gala on my behalf.

I could hardly wait to watch Piers walk straight down the road to ruin I'd paved for him.