Chapter 5 The Red Line

Hailey's Pov

Kingsley's knees hit the marble floor.

The sound is dull, wrong-too heavy for a room dressed in crystal and champagne.

For a split second, no one reacts. The world seems to pause, balanced on that brief, impossible moment where gravity hasn't finished its work.

Then his body follows.

I don't remember deciding to move. I'm already there, my heels sliding on the polished floor as I drop beside him. Cold marble bites into my knees through silk that was pristine minutes ago. Someone screams. Camera flashes go off-too bright, too close-until they blur into white bursts at the edges of my vision.

"Kingsley."

My voice doesn't sound like mine. It's stripped bare, sharp, unpolished.

I reach for him and my hands sink into warmth.

For a heartbeat, my mind refuses to understand what I'm touching. Then the smell hits me-metallic, unmistakable-and my fingers come away slick and dark.

Blood.

Too much of it.

I press my hands back down, harder this time, instinct overriding my thought. My palms slide against his side, trying to find where the damage ends and where he begins. The silk of my gown darkens instantly, soaking up the evidence of something that was never supposed to happen.

This wasn't part of the deal.

"Don't move," I say, though he isn't moving at all. "Don't-just-"

My words fracture as his breath stutters beneath my wrist. It's shallow, uneven, but it's there. Relief crashes into my chest so hard it almost hurts.

"There," I whisper. "That's it. Stay with me."

The banquet hall dissolves around us. It becomes noise without meaning-voices overlapping, shoes scraping, glass shattering somewhere behind me.

Brandon's voice cuts through it all, calm and commanding, sharp enough to carve order out of chaos.

"Seal the exits. Phones down. Anyone filming gets escorted out."

Security surges forward. Guests protest, then quiet under firmer hands. Someone kneels near me, saying something I don't register.

I didn't ook up.

Kingsley's face has gone pale, the color draining from him in a way that feels unnatural for someone who stood so solidly moments ago. His lashes flutter, but his eyes didn't open.

"Hey," I say, leaning closer. My breath shakes against his cheek. "You don't get to do this. Do you hear me?"

His jaw tightens faintly. A sound slips from him, low and involuntary, and my fingers curl reflexively, as if I can hold him here by force alone.

Paramedics finally push through the crowd. Hands replace mine, gloved and efficient. Someone tells me they're taking over.

I hesitated.

For one stupid, irrational second, I don't want to let go. My hands feel like the only thing keeping him tethered to this side of the room.

Then I pulled back.

The air feels colder immediately.

They lift him onto the gurney. The movement pulls a sharp sound from his throat, and my chest tightens in response, my body echoing his pain without permission.

"I'm here," I said, walking alongside them. "I'm right here."

The ambulance doors slam shut behind us, and the world shrinks to white walls and harsh light.

The siren starts up, a wailing scream that vibrates through my bones. I sat rigid on the narrow bench, knees pressed together, hands clasped so tightly my fingers ache. Across from me, the paramedics move with practiced urgency-cutting fabric, calling numbers, snapping instructions back and forth.

They cut away Kingsley's shirt.

The sound of scissors is obscene in its calmness.

Fabric falls open, exposing skin already bruised and bloodied. Electrodes are placed. A mask covers his mouth. I watch his chest rise and fall, too shallow, too fragile for someone who looked untouchable standing under ballroom lights.

"Are you his wife?" one of them asks without looking at me.

"No," I answer too quickly.

The word echoes in the small space.

Then, after a pause I can't seem to shorten, I added, "Fiancée."

It feels unreal in my mouth. It felt heavy, Like something borrowed.

This was supposed to be simple, Strategic. He was supposed to be a name beside mine, a shield in boardrooms and headlines-not this. Not a body bleeding because he stepped in front of something meant for me.

The ambulance swerves. My shoulder hits the wall, but I barely feel it. My eyes are fixed on him, on the way his brow creases faintly as if even unconscious, he's still fighting something.

As they peel back the last of the fabric, something else catches my eye.

A scar.

High on his collarbone, thin and jagged, silvered with age. It doesn't belong to tonight. It's old-old enough to have faded into the story of his body.

My breath stutters.

I know this.

Not logically, not clearly. But the recognition hits like pressure behind my eyes, sudden and disorienting. My hand lifts before I realize I've moved, fingers hovering inches from his skin.

I didn't touch him.

Heat radiates off him, palpable even through the air.

For a split second, something presses at the edge of my mind-sunlight, dust, a voice calling my name-but it fractures before it can form. Pain pulses briefly at my temples, sharp and insistent, then fades.

I lower my hand slowly, curling my fingers into the bloodstained fabric of my gown.

Who are you?

The thought isn't a question. It's a realization.

I don't know the man I just agreed to marry.

The siren cuts off abruptly as the ambulance slows. The sudden silence rings in my ears. The doors are thrown open, cold night air rushing in, followed immediately by the bright, sterile light of the emergency bay.

Everything moves fast again.

Shoes squeak against tile, Voices overlap. The gurney is rolling before I fully register it, my body following automatically, step for step, as if proximity alone might keep him from slipping away.

We reach a thick red line cutting across the floor.

A doctor steps into my path, hand raised-not aggressive, just final. His eyes flick to my ruined dress, to my hands still faintly stained despite the hurried wipe in the ambulance.

"Ms. Norway."

My name lands with weight.

I look past him, watching Kingsley disappear deeper into the ER, swallowed by blue and green scrubs, by swinging doors that don't wait for permission.

"I'm going with him," I say.

The doctor doesn't move.

"His vitals are dropping," he says quietly. "We need to operate now. You cannot come any further."

The doors swing shut.