By the time the private medical team arrived, I was close to shock from blood loss and post-surgery weakness.

When I woke again, I was in the emergency observation room at St. Mary’s. The doctor told me my body hadn’t recovered from the miscarriage or the gunshot wound, and the fall had pushed my anemia and infection markers into dangerous territory. Another half hour, and no one could guarantee what would have happened.

After listening, I asked only one question. “Can you encrypt my discharge papers and injury report and send them to this address?”

The doctor looked startled, but he nodded.

While I was handling the paperwork, I saw Adrian at the end of the hall.

He was helping Evelyn out of a VIP exam room. She wore his suit jacket over her shoulders. Her face was a little pale, but she was nowhere near danger. Adrian held a cup of warm water and coaxed her to take her medicine.

“Be good. Take the fever reducer. Your health matters more than any meeting.”

So the so-called Blake family siege had been a mild fever and a few suspicious cars.

While I lay at the foot of the stairs pressing the emergency signal, he was pouring her water.

“Selena? Why are you at the hospital?”

I leaned against the wall. “A little anemia.”

A nurse happened to come over with my scans and frowned. “Mr. Moretti? The patient fell down a flight of stairs. She has head trauma and abdominal bleeding, and she needs observation. Please don’t let her move around alone again.”

Adrian’s hand tightened so hard that the paper cup bent. “You really fell down the stairs?”

I watched the panic flash across his face and found it strangely unfamiliar.

“It’s nothing serious. I just missed a step.”

Evelyn coughed softly beside him and placed one hand on her belly while looking straight at me.

“Adrian, my stomach feels off. Did the scare hurt the baby?”

Adrian looked at me, then at her. For a few seconds, the struggle in his eyes was obvious. In the end, he still held Evelyn up.

“Selena, go get your tests done. I’ll take her back and come right back to you.”

“Okay.” He didn’t hear that there was no expectation left in that word.

By evening, my phone lit up with Evelyn’s new video.

In it, Adrian was driving his black convertible Aston Martin along the coastal road with her in the passenger seat. Evelyn turned the camera toward his hard profile, and her caption was syrupy enough to rot teeth.

[After the fever went down, I wanted ocean air, and he said yes. Mr. Moretti to everyone else, my on-call driver to me. Don’t scold him. He just loves spoiling people.]

Someone commented, [Won’t Mrs. Moretti mind?]

Evelyn replied:

[The woman who’s truly favored never has to mind.]

I bundled the video, the comments, the medical records, and the dispatch logs and scheduled them to be sent to the Moretti Commission, the Langdon family’s financial monitors, and Professor Clark.

Then I pulled out my IV and went back to the villa.

I gathered everything Adrian had left in my life over the last ten years. Photos, evening gowns, old jewelry, a copy of our vows, and the pink scarf.

The fireplace burned hot. Paper and silk curled, blackened, and became a light heap of ash.

At last, I placed the signed divorce agreement, the emergency miscarriage notice, the gunshot injury report, Evelyn’s taunting posts, and the wedding ring with its access revoked neatly on the living room coffee table.

At two in the morning, Professor Clark’s car stopped at the back gate.

The driver handed me a new ID and a black coat.

“Dr. Vale, from this moment forward, you’re entering the Black Ice Project at the Artemis Northern Institute. Your original identity will be erased in fifteen minutes.”

I got into the car and looked one last time at the villa where I had lived for ten years.

I felt no sadness. Only relief.

At the same time, Adrian finally felt a strange panic inside the Langdon estate. He watched Evelyn scroll through her phone on the sofa and suddenly remembered my nearly translucent face in the hospital corridor.

“I need to go check on Selena.” He stood.

Evelyn immediately caught his sleeve, her voice turning sweet. “You promised you’d stay with me tonight. Didn’t she say she was fine? Just call her.”

Adrian took out his phone and dialed my number.

No answer.

Then he tried to locate my wedding ring.

A red line appeared on the screen.

[Access invalid.]

For the first time, panic flashed across his face.