Sadie's POV

So now, he was really going to drain his own son’s blood?

The irony was almost too much to bear.

To make matters worse, I came too late.

Mick’s body was already growing cold, and his heartbeat was so faint I could barely feel it.

At this point, there was no room left for arguing. Nothing I said would matter anymore. All I wanted now was for my son to live.

I picked Mick up and ran for the door, but Denton’s tall frame blocked my path.

“If you want to save him,” he said, “then tell me where you hide Jewel.”

I glanced up at him, but said nothing. Instead, I bit my lip and kept my head low, quickly scanning for any possible escape route.

Just then, one of his men burst into the room.

“Boss, we found her,” he reported, shooting me a quick glance. “Miss Jewel was discovered at an abandoned warehouse. Looks like she fainted from the shock.”

Without warning, Denton kicked at me and roared, “You tried to kill her!”

I instinctively wrapped my arms tighter around Mick to protect him. But the force of the kick knocked me to the floor, and my knees slammed hard into the cold tile. The thud echoed through the room.

Then I felt a rush of wind behind me, a fist, maybe, but it stopped just an inch away from my body.

“I’m gonna bring Jewel home first,” he growled. “If she’s missing so much as a strand of hair, I’ll carve out that bastard’s heart and give it to her as a transplant.”

With that, he stormed out.

Seizing the chance, I scrambled to my feet and ran with Mick in my arms, heading straight for my car.

Even though we were in a hospital, I knew better than to trust this place as it belonged to Denton. If they had no problem draining a six-year-old of his blood, I wasn’t about to risk what they’d do next.

Looking down at my son's pale face, almost looking see-through, my whole body trembled. It took everything I had to force the key into the ignition and start the engine.

“Grandma, please, help me. Help Mick.”

My voice was broken and shaky, the sobs making it hard to speak.

“Sadie? Is that you, sweetheart? What’s wrong?” Her voice, warm and full of worry, was the first comforting thing I’d felt in days. Maybe even years.

Three years ago, I received a letter out of the blue. A suicide letter from my birth mother I had lost touch with for eighteen years. She wrote there that I wasn’t an orphan and still had a family, which was my grandmother.

Using the contact information in the letter, I found her.

For the first time, someone other than Denton made me feel loved.

When Melanie first came into our lives, I wrote to my grandmother. She offered to come and take me home. But I said no.

Because back then, Denton still gently tapped my nose and told me, “Silly girl. You and Mick are the two people I love most in this world. I’d give my life to protect you.”

So I believed him.

I gave up my career, turned down my grandmother’s offer to join the family business, and silently helped Denton behind the scenes, managing his affairs and cleaning up his messes.

And now, he wants me and Mick dead.

“Sadie, don’t panic,” Grandma said softly. “Just tell me what you need. I’ll make it happen.”

“I need the best medical team. Mick has lost too much blood. He doesn’t have much time. Also, I want new identities. For both of us. I can’t live like this anymore.”

With no hesitation, Grandma readily agreed, “Alright, Sadie. The best medical team in the world will be in place in three minutes. And I’ll have new identities for you and Mick within seven days.”

“Thanks, Grandma,” I whispered. “Please take me home in seven days as well. I’m ready to take over the family business.”

With that, I ended the call and leaned down to kiss Mick’s cheek. His skin was so pale that it broke my heart all over again, and tears spilled freely from my eyes.

“Just hang in there, Mick. Seven more days. After that, everything will be over. Mommy won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”

Sadie's POV

“M-Mom…”

Mick’s weak voice pulled me out of a nightmare.

I quickly grabbed his small, icy hand and pressed it to my face.

“Mommy’s right here,” I whispered.

He tried to give me a smile, though it clearly took effort, and comforted me. “Don’t cry, Mommy. Mick’s okay.”

I then quickly wiped the tears I didn’t even notice when they trickled.

“I love you, Mom,” he murmured.

“Sweet boy. Mommy loves you, too. You’re going to be okay.”

Those three minutes waiting for help felt longer than my entire lifetime.

At 2 minutes and 48 seconds, the medical team finally arrived.

They were fast and efficient. Not a single movement wasted. In seconds, they had an oxygen mask over Mick’s face, fluids running through a line, and a blood transfusion started.

“Ms. Middleton, Mick’s condition is quite serious,” the lead doctor said. “We need to move him to a hospital with better equipment for a full evaluation. Don't worry, we’re licensed to operate globally and can use any facility without cost or delay. The best option right now is MediTrust Hospital. It’s the closest and also the best.”

At first, I hesitated because MediTrust belonged to Denton.

But Mick couldn’t survive a longer drive. And this hospital was built specifically with children like him in mind, as Denton invested one hundred and fifty million in it back when Mick was frequently sick.

Besides, Denton was off chasing after Melanie and her daughter. He wouldn’t be back anytime soon.

With that in mind, I nodded.

Half an hour later, the emergency room light finally went off.

“Is Mick okay?” I rushed toward the doctor, grabbing his hand in desperation, trying to peek into the room.

The doctor looked completely exhausted as he replied, “He’s stable now. We’re replenishing his red blood cells. If all goes well, he should wake up in about thirty minutes.”

I finally breathed again. And with that breath came the realization that I had been gripping the doctor’s hand so tightly it had turned red.

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, letting go. “Thank you. Thank you for saving my son.”

The doctor offered a tired but kind smile. “It’s my job. But you should know, he still needs careful attention. He’s lost a lot of blood. It’s a serious threat to his life.”

I nodded, dazed, and a wave of guilt crashed over me. I should’ve protected him. I failed him. I was supposed to be his mother.

“What can I do for him?” I asked helplessly.

“You don’t need to blame yourself too much. What he needs now is rest,” the doctor answered.

I glanced into the hospital room. For the first time, some color had returned to Mick’s little face. But his brows were still furrowed in discomfort.

Suddenly, I remembered his favorite teddy bear.

That bear had comforted him more than anything else. More than my hugs. More than even Denton’s affection.

He also loved the sound of wind chimes and those dinosaur picture books he read every night before bed.

Maybe those familiar things could help him sleep better.

Thinking of it, I grabbed my keys and rushed back home.

But as soon as I parked in the underground garage, I caught a faint whiff of smoke.

Yet I didn’t think much of it since I had no time.

I bolted straight for Mick’s room, but when I opened the door, I froze.

It looked like a war zone.

The room had been completely torn apart and ransacked like it had been looted. Everything was gone. Even the family portrait he drew and stuck on the wall was ripped to shreds.

Then I heard her voice.

“Throw it all in the river.”

I looked down over the railing and saw her, Melanie, commanding someone to dump all of Mick’s belongings.

“Melanie!” I screamed. “Have you lost your damn mind?! What the hell are you doing?!”

Sadie's POV

I stumbled and scrambled down the stairs, desperate to stop her, but it was too late. Everything had already been shredded, ripped, and destroyed.

I dropped to the floor, frantically trying to piece Mick’s things back together like some broken puzzle, but it was hopeless. All of it was gone.

Yet Melanie stood there, smiling gracefully as if she were watching a madwoman unravel before her eyes.

“Oh, relax,” she said calmly. “It’s just a bunch of useless junk. I’m helping you clean up.”

“Useless?!” I cried out, shaking. “Those were Mick’s things!”

She gave a casual shrug. “Well, it’s not like he’ll need them anymore, right? You should be thanking me, honestly. What kind of manners did that little brat even learn from you?”

Her words cut deep, each one worse than the last.

“This room’s about to become the new nursery,” she added, still smiling. “If we don’t clear it out properly, who knows what kind of bad luck your little dead-weight son might pass on to my and Denton’s baby?”

“Nursery?” I snapped, voice rising with fury. “There are plenty of other rooms! Why did you have to destroy his?”

She tilted her head mockingly. “You’re really this hard to talk to? Or are you just crazy now? That short-lived son of yours, how many days do you think he’s got left?”

That smirk on her face, so full of venom and cruelty, pushed me over the edge.

Before I could think, my hand had already flown across her face.

Her head whipped to the side, and blood trickled from the corner of her lip. But instead of anger, she smiled even wider.

She gently touched the red, rising print on her cheek, her eyes glittering with malice.

“Oh, sweetheart,” she whispered darkly, “you’re going to regret that.”

Then suddenly, she threw herself backward, away from me, arms flailing dramatically as she let out a panicked scream.

She landed right into the fire pit.

Instinct kicking in, I reached out to pull her back, but she grabbed me instead, yanking me down with her. My knees slammed straight into the shattered glass of Mick’s favorite snow globe.

She whimpered, tears welling up in her eyes as she gripped her stomach.

“Please, Sadie, I didn’t mean to throw Mick’s things away. Don’t hurt me anymore. I still have to take care of Jewel. She needs me.”

The pain in my knees and hands was unbearable, but I couldn’t even process it anymore. My brain was too overloaded with everything that was happening.

“Stop!”

The sharp voice cut through the chaos as Denton arrived.

He stormed over and saw Melanie sitting on the ground, covered in ash and dirt, looking like a damsel in distress. Without hesitation, he scooped her into his arms, and his face twisted in anger as he turned on me.

“What the hell did you do?!”

Before I could even open my mouth, he yanked me to my feet, then kicked me hard in the stomach.

With the brutal force, I went flying across the patio, crashing into the iron railing so hard that it bent.

“I didn’t. I swear I didn’t hurt her,” I choked out. “She fell on purpose—”

“Shut up!” he roared, towering over me. “Do you think I’m that stupid? That I’ll keep letting you lie to me again and again?”

“I warned you not to touch Melanie or her daughter! You mistook my tolerance for weakness, didn’t you? You thought you could keep playing me like before?”

He grabbed me again, this time dragging me across the garden like a discarded corpse. Sharp rocks and branches tore into my skin, causing blood to ooze out.

“You’ll pay for this,” he growled.

Once inside, he threw me into the bedroom and hurled our wedding keepsakes at me like garbage. The small velvet ring box then hit me square on the forehead, and blood trickled from the gash above my eyebrow, blurring my vision in red.

He destroyed everything. Everything we were.

The pain wasn’t even physical anymore. It was something far deeper, far colder. I felt like my heart had been carved out, one slice at a time. And now, he was burning the rest.

Even so, I didn’t cry. I just sat there, watching it all burn down.

All I wanted was to go back to the hospital and be with Mick.

But Denton wasn’t finished.

“Put her on the helicopter,” he ordered coldly. “Drop her at three thousand meters.”

My blood turned to ice upon hearing that.

He knew I had a paralyzing fear of heights.

I looked at him, terrified, silently begging.

Yet he only smiled and said, “I told you. You'll pay the price of what you did.”

And it hit me again. This man, this monster, wasn’t just powerful. He ruled both the underworld and the business world. People trembled at his name. So if he wanted me gone, he wouldn’t hesitate.

But Mick didn’t deserve this.

“Please, don’t do this,” I sobbed. “Just let me see Mick and I’ll disappear. I’ll take him and go far away. You’ll never see us again.”

He looked down in disgust as I clung to the hem of his pants, my palm torn and bloody.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Sadie,” he said. “I’m not letting either of you off the hook. Not the woman who humiliated me for five years, and definitely not that bastard child.”

“He’s not a bastard! He’s your son!”

“You’re still lying to me!?” he shouted, then slapped me across the face with full force.

Blood filled my mouth instantly, and a tooth even flew out and hit the floor.

Still, I tried to speak and beg. But my voice was lost in the pain and blood.

“Take her away,” he barked.

Then I heard a muffled sound at the back of my head, and everything went dark.

The last thing I thought before blacking out was terrifyingly clear that they were going to kill me.