Xavier softened his voice. "Silly girl, the hospital was arranged by the airline."

Dora only grew more anxious. "But I'm really so scared!"

"Miss Vance must hate me now. Why would she ever want to save my child?"

"Everyone at the airline knows her. Picking which hospital is just a word from her mouth..."

"Miss Swanson, spreading lies carries legal consequences."

I pushed the door open and looked straight at Dora, curled against Xavier's chest.

She fell silent at once and quickly buried her face into him.

Seeing her frightened, cowering, Xavier's urge to protect her surged to its peak.

"Don't be afraid. I'm here."

He turned to me, his eyes full of scrutiny.

"What did you come here for?"

"Or is it that you really do have some shady connection with this hospital?"

My voice didn't waver. "My only job is to report a passenger's condition. I know nothing about the treatment arrangements."

"Every call during the flight is recorded. Check them all you like. My conscience is clear."

My firmness lit his temper in an instant.

"You make it sound so nice. Felix is still so small. He's been unconscious this long. If there are lasting effects, can you take responsibility for that?"

A boundless exhaustion swept over me. I sighed.

"If you don't trust this place, then transfer him yourselves."

I turned to go, and Dora suddenly rushed over, dropping to her knees and wrapping her arms around my legs.

"Miss Vance! I know you hate me, but Felix is innocent. I'm begging you, let him go!"

"Didn't you just lose your own child? Just give Felix a way to live, and from now on he'll be your child! I promise we'll never appear in front of you again!"

I frowned and tried hard to pull free of her. "There's no need. Let go of me first—"

"Ah!"

Before I could finish, Dora suddenly screamed and dropped to the floor, clutching her ribs.

"Dora!" Xavier's pupils shrank, and he strode to her side.

"Amelia Vance, you dare to hurt Dora right in front of me!"

"I didn't—"

"Xavier, it's all right, I'm fine." Dora spoke almost at the same time as me.

She drew thin, ragged breaths. "As long as Miss Vance is willing to let Felix go, a few kicks are nothing..."

Xavier's eyes on me were cold as ice.

He stood, and raised his hand high.

"Amelia Vance, how can you be this vicious!"

Crack!

After the sharp sound, the ward fell into dead silence.

Xavier stared at his own reddened palm, frozen for a moment.

Dora knelt back on the floor, her voice timid. "Miss Vance, don't blame Xavier. I'll apologize for him. It's all my fault, so hit me!"

The fury reignited in Xavier's eyes in an instant.

He grabbed me by the collar, his gaze sweeping over my cheek, already swollen high, as if it weren't there at all.

"That was only a warning. If you dare touch a single hair on her again, I'll make you pay a hundred times over!"

The burning sting on my face kept reminding me of what had just happened.

Xavier had hit me. For another woman.

Before, it would probably have felt like a knife twisting in my heart.

But now, my heart had long gone numb.

I pulled my collar out of his hand and straightened it.

Then I walked out of the ward without hesitation, without a shred of reluctance.

On the road back to the airport, I called my lawyer.

"Prepare the divorce paperwork for me. The party at fault is Xavier Sawyer. I'll send the evidence of his affair to your email later."

Dense drops of rain beat wildly against the car window. The heater was on inside, but it couldn't warm my frozen heart.

As I got out, my phone rang.

Holding my coat up against the rain, I fumbled to answer.

"Amelia Vance, you shameless bitch!"

I frowned. It was Xavier's mother.

"That useless little girl you gave birth to is dead, and now you can't stand to see my precious grandson do well! You black-hearted, rotten bitch, you deserved to give birth to a short-lived brat!"

"Don't think no one can see through your filthy little scheme! Dora told me everything. You deliberately arranged some garbage hospital, trying to kill my grandson!"

"Let me make this clear. Everything the Sawyers own goes to Felix. You won't see a cent of it!"

"If you know your place, this family might still put food in front of you. But if you dare pull another one of these schemes to grab money and kill for it, I'll have my son divorce you!"

Threats, insults. Every ugly thing she could think of came pouring out of her mouth, no two the same.

The pouring rain soaked me through, chilling me to the bone, and still it was nothing beside the cold sitting in my chest.

The "useless girl" she spoke of was the one who sat at her bedside when she broke a bone, massaging her, wiping her down.

The one she called a "money-grabbing killer" was the one who once emptied her savings so the Sawyer family could be what it is today.

None of it, none of the real things I'd given, could close the gap in her heart between a granddaughter and a grandson.

"Mom," I cut her off, my voice calm and steady. "This is the last time I'll ever call you that."

"As a captain, I did everything I was supposed to do. All of it legal, all of it by the book."

"Xavier and the rest of them knew that child was sick, and they didn't even keep his emergency medication on hand. That's negligence on the part of his guardians."

"You've got time to interrogate me. You'd do better to teach your son how to be a decent father."

Then I hung up and blocked her, all in one motion.

We were never going to speak again anyway.

The next morning I woke with a fever, both cheeks flushed red.

I took some medicine, and two messages came in on my phone.

One was the divorce paperwork from the lawyer. The other was the notice that flights had resumed.

I printed out the documents and signed the divorce agreement.

I couldn't fly with a fever, so I planned to check in at the airport, then go to the hospital to find Xavier.

When I got to the airport, I saw a crowd off in the distance with the Chief Pilot and Xavier at its center.

"Amelia Vance is here!"

Someone shouted it, and in an instant every camera and microphone the media had swung toward me.

"Captain Vance, we've heard you landed here on purpose to delay the patient's treatment. Is that true?"

"People online say you're taking your grief over your daughter out on the world, that you tried to kill your passengers. What's your response?"

"An inside source says you failed your evaluations and only became a captain through a sponsor. What's your relationship with that sponsor?"

The questions came at me one after another, and I stood there with no idea where to begin.

"Everyone!" the Chief Pilot said, raising his voice. "This diversion was fully legal and by the book. We're willing to release our internal files and open ourselves to public scrutiny!"

Xavier scoffed. "You're all in this together. Why should anyone believe you?"

His cold, cruel gaze settled on me.

"Amelia Vance used her position for a personal vendetta and delayed my son's treatment! Yesterday she even went to the hospital and threatened my wife, forced her to her knees, scared her so badly she's sick now!"

His finger was nearly jabbing into my face.

"After everything she's done, and she's still standing there glowing with health. It's absolutely disgusting!"

"How is someone like this fit to be a captain? How could anyone put a whole plane full of lives in her hands?"

"I wanted to take this all the way. But my wife is too kind. She said if Amelia Vance kneels and apologizes in front of the media, she'll let the whole thing go!"

I watched his high-minded performance with cold eyes, and it struck me as nothing but absurd.

I was running a fever, and to him it was a face glowing with health.

I had done my duty as a captain and saved his illegitimate son, and out of his mouth it became a personal vendetta.

While one of Dora Swanson's tears, one of her lies, was enough to send him charging in to frame and humiliate me, the wife he'd had for ten years.

My nails dug deep into my palms as I forced down the anger churning in my chest.

"Xavier, since when is Dora Swanson your wife? She's nothing but a little—"

"Shut up!"

Xavier roared it, and suddenly he rushed at me, eyes gone red.

A slap cracked through the air, sharp and loud.

Unlike the last time, when he'd lost control for a moment, this one carried all his strength.

I was knocked to the ground like a fallen leaf, and blood came up out of my mouth.

Still he wasn't finished.

"Amelia Vance is out here openly spreading lies about my wife, and I've had all I can take!"

"I don't accept her apology anymore. Your airline is going to answer for this today!"

"In front of all these reporters, if you dare shield this murderer, I'll make sure not one of your planes ever gets off the ground again!"

The Chief Pilot's fists clenched.

In the end all he could do was let out a sigh.

"Effective immediately, Amelia Vance is grounded indefinitely."

Grounded indefinitely.

It didn't just mean I'd be pulled from flight duty. Worse, the penalty would go into my lifetime safety record.

My career would carry this stain forever.

Even so, Xavier didn't think it was enough.

"That's it?" he sneered. "Looks like your company means to protect this murderer to the end! Fine!"

His gaze swept the crowd.

"Friends who were on that flight, last night's delay is proof enough. This airport isn't fit for landings at all."

"And to make sure my son couldn't be saved, Amelia Vance was willing to gamble the lives of every passenger on board."

"Keeping a cancer like Amelia Vance in the aviation world puts all of us at risk! So I'm calling on all of you to speak up with me!"

"Get Amelia Vance the punishment she deserves, and I'll cover every ticket for everyone here!"

The moment he finished, the place erupted.

The Chief Pilot rushed to intervene. "Everyone, please, stay calm! For the delay caused by the severe weather, I apologize on behalf of the company. But that doesn't mean Captain Vance was unprofessional!"

"Just the opposite. We've reviewed the flight. There was sudden violent turbulence mid-route, and panic all through the cabin. It was Captain Vance who kept her head, brought everyone through that turbulence with precise control, and landed safely."

"You can hear the cheers and applause from the cabin on the cockpit recording. Have you all forgotten already?"

Hands froze halfway to phones. Doubt crossed their faces.

"The Chief Pilot really knows how to turn black into white!"

Xavier's whole face twisted with mockery.

"If Amelia Vance hadn't deliberately diverted to this dump of an airport, why would we have gone through any of that?"

"She put a whole plane of people in danger for her own ends, and now we're supposed to thank her?"

Every eye turned back to me, loathing in them again.

They stopped hesitating and raced to post their lies and attacks about me online.

In no time the outcry was everywhere.

The company's complaint lines were jammed, the stock crashing.

Just then, a soft, delicate voice came from beyond the crowd.

"What are you all doing?"

"Dora!" Xavier's face went grave. He shoved out through the crowd and pulled Dora into his arms.

"You're still sick. Why did you come?"

Dora was pale, her brow faintly knit, the kind of look that made people want to pity her.

Her eyes settled on me, disapproving. "How could you do this to Captain Vance?"

"She only made me kneel and kicked me a few times, that's all. As long as she lets Felix go, I'll take it gladly!"

Hearing that, the crowd grew even more furious.

"Using a child to threaten Mrs. Sawyer, Amelia Vance is despicable!"

"Mrs. Sawyer is just too kind!"

"Hold her down! Make her kneel and kowtow an apology to Mrs. Sawyer!"

The Chief Pilot startled, moving in with security to stop it, but they couldn't push through at all.

They forced me down onto my knees in front of Xavier and Dora.

Countless lenses were shoved almost against my face, capturing every bit of my humiliation.

My head was pinned down and struck hard against the floor.

Once, twice...

By the ninety-ninth time, the Chief Pilot's phone rang.

Only then did Xavier curl his lips in satisfaction and signal for them to let go of me.

After that call, the Chief Pilot could no longer hold out against the pressure.

He bowed deeply to the media.

"On behalf of the company, I announce that Amelia Vance's captain qualifications are revoked and her pilot's license is suspended."

"Amelia Vance will never be hired anywhere in this industry again!"

I had barely struggled to my feet when everything surged up inside my chest and I coughed out a mouthful of blood.

Xavier came over wearing a smug smile, leaning close to my ear, his voice low.

"See? I can make you a captain and send you soaring into the sky."

"And I can send you to rock bottom, where you'll never get up again."

I listened to all of it blankly, then let out a soft laugh.

The sound was very faint against all that chaos.

Yet it made Xavier instinctively want to step back.

I caught him by the collar, my own voice just as low.

"Has it never occurred to you? That child has the same illness you do, so why didn't the same treatment work on him?"

"What are you saying?"

I ignored his question and shoved him away.

Wiping the blood from my eyes, I said, "Kneeling, kowtowing, punishment..."

"I've accepted all of it."

I took the divorce papers out of my bag and held them up for everyone to see.

"Now it's my turn to finish what I didn't get to say earlier."