But was he willing to trade Elara’s life for that justice?
He drove his fingers through his hair, letting out a long, shuddering sigh. He was waiting for the surgeon to return when a familiar voice called his name.
‘Mr. Ashford…”
It was Sienna. Her lips were still pale; she had clearly left her own recovery bed to follow him here.
‘What are you doing here?” Damian frowned. “You just had a major trauma. You should be resting at home.”
Sienna glanced towards my room, carefully hiding the anxiety in her eyes. “I… I was so worried about Elara. I <now what she did to me, but… she did serve us for so long. I can’t be as heartless as she is. Is… is her surg-
ery over?”
Damian shook his head. “There’s a foreign object in her heart. It’s too risky to remove.”
Sienna subtly relaxed.
Damian’s gaze fell on the man standing behind her. “And this is?”
‘Oh, I was worried the doctors here weren’t skilled enough, so I took the liberty of calling Dr. Evans.”
Damian had heard of Dr. Evans. He was a world-renowned cardiac surgeon, but getting an appointment was
early impossible. Damian would have requested him himself if he’d thought it was an option.
Sienna pulled the doctor forward. “Why not let him perform the surgery? With his skill, he’ll be able to remove he object from Elara’s heart without any trouble!”
A surge of hope shot through Damian, but for some reason, a deep, gnawing unease settled in his gut.
‘No, it’s fine.”
Sienna blinked. “Mr. Ashford?”
2/9
16:06
Chapter 2
The team here is responsible and they’ve worked together for years,” Damian said, sinking back into his chair. “It’s not good to switch lead surgeons.”
Sienna bit her lip, her eyes darting toward my room again. She twisted the corner of her shirt. “But I begged Dr. Evans for so long to come…”
Damian was silent for a moment. “Then we’ll trouble Dr. Evans to consult.”
The man in the mask, the one called Dr. Evans, exchanged a quick, bright-eyed glance with Sienna before composing himself. “Of course, Mr. Ashford. You can rest assured.”
The scar on my chest was from that night. From trying to save Lily. Rick had stabbed me, and I’d collapsed ir a pool of my own blood, helpless, as I watched him violate and murder my best friend.
I thought I would die with her. I never expected to wake up in a hospital.
I wanted to expose Rick’s crimes, but when I returned to the scene, it had been compromised. The only evidence was a broken tactical knife, but it couldn’t be definitively linked to him.
But I knew. That knife was Rick’s signature. He’d commissioned a master artisan to engrave his name on the blade. The artisan even confirmed it. But with the blade broken, the chain of evidence was shattered.
Only I knew where the other half was. It was lodged in my heart.
I’d considered having it removed, but the doctors told me it would trigger a massive hemorrhage. My chance of survival was less than five percent. But leaving it in was a ticking time bomb; I didn’t have long to live either way. No one could guarantee the blade wouldn’t shift and kill me in my sleep.
I spent a whole day thinking, and then I wrote a letter. My last will and testament. In it, I instructed that upon my death, the object in my heart must be removed.
But I couldn’t tell Damian. He would never let me have the surgery. He couldn’t accept the fact that I could die at any moment. And he couldn’t bear the agony of knowing his sister’s killer was walking free while the key to his conviction was trapped inside me.
For him, it was a no-win situation.
But for me, it wasn’t. I was a dying woman. Every extra day I got to spend with the man I loved was a day
won.
I just never imagined he would come to hate me so much.
I was the only witness, yet I refused to cooperate, refused to answer any questions. I couldn’t bear to have the thing in my heart ripped out. It would mean the end of the last days we had together. So he used every cruel trick he could think of to break me, bringing home a parade of women, forcing me to kneel and serve them. Not even Sienna’s pregnancy was enough to pry my lips open.
He thought Rick was my lover. How could he? I wanted to kill the man with my own hands.
8/9
16:06
