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Lenox Hill Hospital.
Her mother's vitals kept dropping. The monitors kept shrieking.
Seraphina had pressed the call button a hundred times. She'd gone hunting for a doctor herself. No one came.
Then Damien appeared outside the room, tall and polished in a bespoke suit, and held his phone out to her.
"I've had the DA drop the charges. Record a video. A public apology. Then Mom gets her surgery."
"Vegetable or morgue. Pick one."
His voice was level. His eyes weren't.
Seraphina looked up at him, eyes raw and red, trembling. Only a few words made it out.
"Why?"
She didn't understand.
Why, when he and she were supposed to be the family, was he protecting Vivienne?
Tears slid down her face, clean and quiet. It was the second time she'd ever cried in front of him. The first had been their wedding day.
Something flickered in Damien's eyes — regret, maybe. He lifted his hand out of habit, reaching to wipe her tears, then froze and pulled it back.
"Sera. Vivienne and I grew up together. The surgery was an accident. Even if she'd used both hands, your mother might not have survived."
"The whole internet is tearing her apart. Just be reasonable. Record one video. Clear her name. The surgeons are standing by. When it's done, I'll get your brother out too. Okay?"
It was phrased as a question. His eyes allowed no answer but yes.
Could she refuse?
Did she have the right to?
If she said no, would she be the next one thrown in a cell — or left brain-dead on a slab?
A cold, sick understanding settled in her chest.
For seven years, Damien had spoiled her. He'd never raised his voice at her, never denied her a single thing. If she so much as glanced at something, no matter how expensive or hard to get, it showed up on her dresser by morning.
She'd thought he would be her shelter.
But from the moment her mother collapsed, she had begged him — begged him to help her — and he always wore that same strange, distant expression. She'd thought it was awkwardness, political difficulty.
Then she'd realized it was Vivienne. Because it was Vivienne, he couldn't bring himself to.
He ran out of patience waiting for her answer.
"If you don't agree, your mother won't live through the night. Your brother stays in prison. Forever."
"Sera, don't hate me for this. Vivienne raised me out of the dark. I was a kid with selective mutism and she pulled me out of it. I promised I would protect her. Always. Not even you get to come between that."
The second he finished the sentence, her mother started seizing on the bed.
The monitors screamed.
A small team of doctors burst through the door and wheeled her bed away.
"Mom!"
Seraphina lunged after them. Damien caught her arm.
"Record the video. Then your mother gets her surgery."
"Damien." Her voice cracked in disbelief. "Are you even human anymore?"
He shook her off. His brow knitted. The whole weight of him pressed down on her.
"Thirty seconds. That's all you get."
Something inside her went ice cold.
For the first time, this man was a stranger. Something alien and terrifying. As if every tender year between them had been an illusion she'd made up.