I stared at him, incredulous. "I don't know what you're talking about. Get out!"

"Still lying?" Zane spat. "Martha took the baby for a checkup. They left the hospital and vanished. You can't have children, so you stole mine?"

His accusations were laughable. Without a word, I signaled my guards to remove him.

But Zane came prepared. As my men advanced, a group of burly thugs poured in from behind him. They overwhelmed my guards, pinning my arms behind my back before I could react.

Zane loomed over me, his face twisted with malice. "Give me my child, or I'll make you pay!"

"Absurd!" I spat. "Why would I kidnap your child?"

He slapped me, the sting sharp. "Tell me where they are!"

My arms were restrained, but my eyes burned into his. "I told you, I have nothing to do with this!"

"Fine! If you don't talk, I'll beat it out of you," he sneered, gesturing to his men, who advanced with batons raised.

"I dare you to touch me!" I warned. "My family will bury you all!"

Unfazed, Zane waved them forward.

The blows came fast, blood soaking my clothes, the taste of iron in my mouth. I refused to speak, and his frustration grew. "Still not talking? Guess this is too lenient."

His goons dragged me up. I fought them, half-conscious, a cold dread creeping up my spine.

"In that case, I'll rip out your womb so you'll never be a mother," he hissed.

They dragged me into a car and drove to Mercy Medical Center, a private clinic I'd gifted Zane for his birthday. His loyalists staffed it now; the doctors and guards ignored me, bowing to him.

They hauled me into an operating room and strapped me to a cold surgical table. The overhead lights blinded me, and masked figures in scrubs surrounded me.

I struggled, blood trickling from my lips. "If I don't walk out of here, the Grimes family will pay with everything!"

"Still making threats?" Zane scoffed.

A doctor stepped forward, his scalpel gleaming. The blade sliced through my clothes with a sharp snip, its cold edge grazing my skin.

Zane's face was a mask of ice as the scalpel was poised to cut. Suddenly, the door flew open with a deafening crash.

Zane's expression shifted from smugness to terror. I met his gaze, my voice a blade of ice. "The Grimes family will vanish from earth today!"