The man recoiled the second he saw me properly, horror draining the color from his face.

“Holy shit…” His voice cracked. “Who are you? What the hell did you do for Mr. Valcourt to punish you like this?”

Even half-dead on the floor, I could still hear the judgment in his voice.

My lips shook as I forced the words out.

“I’m…” I swallowed painfully. “Dante’s wife.”

I lifted a trembling hand toward him. Blood streaked across the metal beneath my fingers.

The diamond ring on my hand caught the light weakly.

Dante had designed it himself once upon a time. Rare. Expensive. Supposedly irreplaceable.

Now it looked lifeless.

Just like me.

“H-he gave me this,” I whispered faintly. “It was custom made…”

The man’s expression changed instantly.

His face lost all color.

“Stay here,” he muttered quickly.

He helped me lean against the wall before pulling out his phone with visibly shaking hands.

“Boss,” he said cautiously after the line connected. “I was checking the storage area and found your wife locked in the heater room. She’s in pretty bad shape. She’s bleeding heavily. Should I get an ambulance?”

Silence answered first.

Then Dante spoke.

Cold. Detached.

“Bleeding from what?” he said flatly. “Did she do something to Helena’s lizard? That reptile means more to Helena than most people.”

My chest tightened so painfully I thought I might stop breathing altogether.

Then his tone hardened further.

“Leave her there,” he ordered. “She’s putting on a performance. I’ll handle her myself later.”

The line disconnected immediately afterward.

The man stared at his phone for several seconds before looking back at me.

I already knew what he was thinking.

Nobody crossed the Valcourts.

Fear always won in the end.

Without another word, he turned and walked away.

I closed my eyes slowly.

So this was how it ended.

But a few minutes later, hurried footsteps echoed through the hallway again.

The same man returned, tension carved deep into his face.

“My wife’s pregnant too,” he said quietly, almost like he was confessing something to himself. “If I abandoned you here… I wouldn’t be able to live with myself afterward.”

Before I could respond, he bent down and carefully lifted me into his arms.

He wrapped his jacket around my shoulders and called emergency services while trying unsuccessfully to steady his trembling hands.

When the sound of sirens finally reached me, I nearly cried from relief.

I was still alive.

Barely, but alive.

That feeling didn’t last long.

The second we reached the hospital, reality hit me all over again.

No delivery room was available.

No surgical suite.

No emergency equipment.

Nothing.

The entire hospital had already been claimed by the Valcourt family.

Because Aurora was giving birth.

Terrified that something might go wrong during her delivery, Dante had used the family’s influence to quietly reserve every important unit in the hospital. Every operating room. Every specialist. Every emergency machine.

There was nothing left for anyone else.

One glance at my condition was enough for the doctor to understand.

If I stayed there much longer, both my baby and I would die.

The doctor grabbed my phone from beside me, scrolling quickly through my contacts before stopping at the name labeled My Hubby.

She called him immediately while nurses rushed around trying to stabilize me.

“This is the attending physician,” she said urgently the moment Dante answered. “Your wife is in critical condition. She needs immediate intervention or we may lose both mother and child. You need to come here now.”

Dante sounded more annoyed than concerned.

“So you actually made it out?” he said coldly. “Now you’re bribing doctors to lie for you too?”

He didn’t even let the doctor finish speaking.

“I’m not wasting my time coming over,” he continued. “I know Aria better than anyone. She’s fine. Tell her to stop humiliating herself.”

Then he hung up.

The doctor slowly lowered the phone.

For a moment, she simply looked at me with helpless eyes before turning away to instruct another nurse to arrange a transfer.

There was nothing else she could do there.

When I realized where they intended to send me, a weak laugh almost escaped my throat.

Aurora’s hospital.

Even after everything, my life still revolved around her.

The doctor attempted one final conversation with Dante outside the room. I could hear every word through the thin walls.

“I don’t care who needs treatment,” Dante said flatly. “Aurora comes before anyone else. I’m not risking her safety.”

Something inside me finally went numb.

My legs gave out and I slid weakly against the wall.

That was when I noticed someone standing farther down the hallway.

Dante’s secretary.

He stared at me in shock, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

After hesitating briefly, he hurried toward Dante’s office.

“Sir,” he said carefully, “there’s a woman outside covered in blood. She looks pregnant. I think… I think it might be Mrs. Valcourt.”

Dante never even looked up.

“That’s impossible,” he replied immediately. “She wouldn’t make it here in that condition.”

The secretary lowered his voice uneasily.

“Maybe you should still check, sir. Just in case it really is her—”

Dante’s expression turned icy.

“If Aria were here,” he said coldly, “she’d already be screaming for attention or money. She’d never let herself look pathetic.”

The doctor continued arguing with him until Dante finally threatened to ruin her career entirely.

A few minutes later, she returned to me with apology written all over her face.

“There’s nothing more I can do,” she said softly.

But for the first time that night, I wasn’t trapped behind a locked steel door.

As long as I still had breath left in me, I refused to die there.

One hand cradled my stomach protectively while the other reached for the doctor’s phone.

My fingers shook violently as I dialed a number I had promised myself never to call again.

The line rang once.

Twice.

Then someone answered.

“Dad…” My voice broke instantly. “Please… help me. I’ll listen to you this time. I swear.”

He didn’t question me. Not once. He didn’t ask for explanations or details.

All he said was, “Where are you?”

And the moment I heard his voice, something inside me finally broke.

I lost it right there.

Fifteen minutes later, the sky above the building split with the roar of helicopter blades. A private chopper descended onto the rooftop, its doors already sliding open before it fully settled. A team of doctors rushed out, calm-faced and precise, moving like every second had already been accounted for.

They got to me quickly and lifted me aboard.

Inside, it wasn’t just a helicopter—it was a full medical unit. Bright lights, monitors, equipment already running, everything prepared like a moving operating room.

For the first time since I became part of the Valcourt family, I allowed myself to believe I might actually make it out alive.

The doctors worked without hesitation, their hands steady as they operated, cutting through the tension—and through my body—while pain still lanced through me despite the anesthesia.

Everything around me started to blur.

Minutes or hours, I couldn’t tell anymore.

Then I heard it.

A doctor let out a breath. “She’s out.”

I waited.

I waited for crying. For movement. For anything.

But there was nothing.

Silence.

My heart dropped so violently it felt like I’d been struck. My voice barely came out through my tears.

“Is my baby… alive?”

One of the doctors gently pressed me back down. “We can’t say she’s stable. We need immediate transfer to the island facility. That’s the only chance.”

I nodded faintly, too exhausted, too empty to argue. My body trembled from everything it had endured, like it no longer knew how to stop shaking.

As the helicopter lifted higher into the sky, I reached weakly for my father’s aide beside me.

“Dante…” I whispered. “He’ll come after us, won’t he?”

His grip on my hand was steady, reassuring. “Relax. Your father has already handled everything.”

I wanted to believe that.

I really did.

That was when I saw him.

Dante Valcourt stood outside the operating area like a shadow carved into the hallway, eyes sharp and scanning everything like nothing could escape him. He didn’t even flinch when the doors opened.

His first words were already waiting, cold and mocking.

“So… Aurora’s fine, right? Can’t have anything happening to my little princess.”

He walked in without hesitation, lifted her into his arms, and held her close like she was the only thing that mattered in the world. A satisfied smile crossed his face.

“There you are, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Perfect as always. Just like your mother. Not like the rest.”

His gaze darkened slightly as he looked away, his voice turning amused and sharp.

“Too bad the other one couldn’t keep up.”

He chuckled under his breath. “I wonder what Aria’s child would’ve even looked like. Probably fragile like her. A shame—born to someone who couldn’t even survive a heater room.”

After a moment, he gently settled the baby back and straightened his coat, already shifting his attention elsewhere. His mind had moved on as if nothing else mattered.

Tomorrow, he would deal with the rest.

That was when his secretary appeared at the edge of the corridor, frozen stiff, as if afraid to breathe. Dante tossed him the car keys without even looking.

“Go,” he ordered flatly. “Bring my wife and the child. I don’t want delays.”

The secretary didn’t move.

Fear had locked him in place.

Dante’s expression sharpened. “What now? You’re scared to take a step? Don’t tell me you’re going to disappoint me too.”

The secretary finally forced the words out, his voice breaking under the weight of it. “Sir… Mrs. Valcourt… and the baby… they didn’t make it.”

A pause.

Then Dante laughed.

Low. Cold. Disbelieving.

“That’s your report?” he said with a faint smirk. “What is this, some kind of joke? Even she can’t manage to do something properly?”

But the secretary’s face crumpled.

“Boss…” he choked out, holding out the file with shaking hands. “It’s confirmed. They’re dead.”