Chapter 1 1

The blinding surgical lights of the Mount Sinai Hospital emergency room burned through Emaline's eyelids.

She lay on the narrow, freezing hospital bed. The metallic smell of her own blood coated the back of her throat. The heart monitor next to her head beeped in a frantic, erratic rhythm, a loud warning that her body was shutting down.

"We need blood! The bank is completely out of AB-negative!" the ER doctor shouted, his gloved hands pressing hard against Emaline's abdomen.

The pressure sent a wave of nausea crashing through her chest. Her vision blurred, the edges of the room turning a fuzzy, dark gray.

Clara, the ER nurse and Emaline's only friend, sprinted toward the glass doors of the trauma bay. Her scrubs were stained with Emaline's blood.

At the end of the sterile white corridor, a figure appeared.

Clayton.

He wore a custom black Tom Ford suit. The sharp, rhythmic click of his leather dress shoes against the marble floor cut through the chaotic noise of the ER. He walked with the slow, predatory grace of a man who owned the building, his face a mask of beautiful, terrifying indifference.

Clara threw open the glass doors and lunged toward him. She grabbed the sleeve of his expensive jacket.

"Mr. Caldwell, please! You have to do a blood match right now. Emaline is bleeding out. She won't survive the night without a transfusion!" Clara's voice cracked, tears spilling down her panicked face.

Clayton stopped. He did not look at Clara.

His cold, slate-gray eyes bypassed the nurse entirely. He stared straight through the glass doors, his gaze landing on Emaline's pale, bloodless face on the bed.

There was no shock in his eyes. No fear. Nothing but a chilling, empty void.

Emaline forced her heavy eyelids open. She turned her head, the friction of the rough pillowcase scraping against her cheek. She met his gaze through the glass. Her lips were cracked and dry. She parted them, her lungs burning as she silently mouthed two words.

Save me.

Leo, Clayton's executive assistant, stepped forward. He used his broad shoulders to physically block Clara from Clayton. Leo shoved a thick stack of legal documents into the nurse's chest, forcing her to step back.

Clayton slowly lifted his left arm. He glanced down at the Patek Philippe watch on his wrist. A small, irritated crease formed between his dark brows. He looked like a man annoyed by a delayed flight, not a husband watching his wife bleed to death.

"Are you out of your mind?" Clara screamed, shoving the documents back at Leo. "That is your legal wife on that table! Are you just going to stand there and watch her die?"

Clayton let out a low, dark chuckle. The sound carried through the open glass doors and hit Emaline's ears like physical blows.

"Her life or death is none of my concern," Clayton said. His voice was smooth, flat, and completely devoid of mercy.

The ER doctor rushed out of the trauma bay. He shoved a clipboard with a critical condition notice toward Clayton.

"Sir, I need your signature. If you don't consent to the transfusion and the emergency procedures, her organs will start failing in minutes."

Clayton took the pen from the doctor's hand. He didn't even glance at the medical jargon on the paper. He flipped straight to the bottom edge of the Refusal of Treatment form.

He pressed the pen to the paper and slashed his sharp, aggressive signature across the dotted line.

Emaline watched the movement of his hand. Her chest hollowed out. The tiny, desperate flame of hope inside her ribcage snapped and died.

Her lungs stopped pulling in air. The frantic beeping of the heart monitor flatlined into one long, piercing, continuous scream.

"What did you just do?" the doctor gasped, staring at the signature in absolute horror. "We still have a medical window-"

Clayton raised his hand, cutting the doctor off.

A soft, melodic ringtone echoed in the tense hallway. It was the custom ringtone on Clayton's private phone.

Clayton pulled the phone from his inner jacket pocket. He looked at the screen. The name Crista flashed brightly.

Instantly, the hard, cruel lines of his jaw relaxed. The ice in his eyes melted into something soft and urgent. He answered the call and pressed the phone to his ear.

"Crista, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Clayton's voice dropped into a low, soothing murmur.

Emaline lay paralyzed on the bed, the sound of his gentle tone tearing through her chest like a serrated knife.

"Clayton, I'm scared," Crista's voice echoed faintly from the speaker, trembling with fake tears. "It's thundering outside the penthouse. My panic attack is starting."

"Breathe for me, okay? I'm leaving right now. I'll be at the Upper East Side in ten minutes. I've got you."

Clara let out a raw sob of disbelief. "She is dying! Your wife is dying, and you are leaving for a panic attack?"

Clayton lowered the phone. He shot Clara a look so lethal it made the nurse freeze.

"Watch your mouth when you speak about the real daughter of the Garrett family," Clayton warned, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper.

He reached up and casually adjusted the cuffs of his Tom Ford suit, smoothing out an invisible wrinkle. He looked back at the doctor.

"I will not donate a single drop of my blood to a vicious woman," Clayton stated.

Emaline heard every single word. A sudden, violent phantom pain shot through her left leg-the leg that ended just below her knee. The invisible agony ripped through her nervous system, a brutal reminder of the hell she had endured five years ago. The asylum. The kidnapping. The amputation. All because they blamed her for Crista.

Clayton turned his back to the trauma bay. Leo immediately stepped in behind him, snapping open a large black umbrella as they headed for the exit.

Emaline's vision was fading to black. Her fingers twitched on the edge of the mattress. She gathered the absolute last ounce of energy in her failing body. She swung her right arm out.

Her hand slammed into the metal medical tray beside the bed.

Scalpels, clamps, and metal bowls crashed onto the linoleum floor with a deafening clatter.

Outside the glass doors, Clayton's footsteps paused for exactly one second. His broad back went rigid.

But he did not turn around. He resumed walking, stepping into the elevator. The metal doors slid shut, cutting off his cold silhouette.

Clara rushed back into the room. She grabbed Emaline's freezing hand. Hot tears dripped from Clara's chin and splashed onto Emaline's pale knuckles.

"Prep the last unit of backup plasma," the doctor ordered, his voice defeated. "It won't be enough to stabilize her vitals, but it's all we have."

The darkness rushed in, swallowing the harsh hospital lights. But before Emaline completely lost consciousness, the corners of her cracked lips curved upward. It was a cold, broken, terrifying smile.

The green line on the monitor flattened completely.

If I survive this night, Emaline swore to herself in the suffocating dark, I will make you bleed, Clayton.