Chapter 2

Aurora's hand froze in mid-air. The phone was pressed tight against her ear. She waited for the dead dial tone to cut through the silence.

But the call didn't end. Jessica, clearly wanting to show off her victory, pressed the speakerphone button.

Leo's young, excited voice rang out clearly in the background. "Daddy, do wishes really come true?"

Conrad's voice shifted instantly. The coldness vanished, replaced by a deep, loving warmth. "Of course they do, my little prince."

"Then I wish for Auntie Jessica to be my new mommy!" Leo yelled happily.

The words hit Aurora like a sledgehammer to the chest. The last fragile thread keeping her alive snapped.

Her chest heaved violently. She gagged and coughed up a mouthful of dark, blood-streaked fluid onto her chin.

"As long as Leo likes it," Conrad promised without a second of hesitation. He was laughing. "Daddy will give you anything you want."

Jessica let out a shy, giggling, "Oh, stop it."

Then, the line went dead.

Aurora's world collapsed. Ice-cold tears slid down her temples and into her hairline.

The heart monitor beside her bed suddenly erupted into a piercing, high-pitched red alarm.

Her breathing turned into shallow, rapid gasps. Massive black spots chewed at the edges of her vision.

The absolute despair of being thrown away by her own son drained the last drop of fight from her blood.

She slowly closed her eyes. Her fingers went slack. The phone dropped from her hand and hit the linoleum floor with a hard smack. She let herself fall backward into the dark.

The hospital room door slammed open. An ER doctor rushed in, dragging a crash cart behind him.

The doctor stared at the plummeting blood pressure on the screen. "Charge the paddles!" he yelled at the nurse.

The nurse grabbed a pair of trauma shears and quickly cut open the front of Aurora's gown.

Cold, sticky defibrillator pads were slapped hard onto her bare chest.

Aurora's consciousness was already floating. The chaotic shouting and the physical pain in her body felt miles away.

Just as her hearing was about to fade out completely, a chaotic, heavy set of footsteps pounded down the hallway outside.

Bang!

The heavy isolation doors at the end of the hall were kicked open with brutal force.

A young man's low, guttural roar bled through the thick wood of Aurora's door. It was a sound of pure, violent panic.

"If she dies in here today, I will wipe this entire fucking hospital off the map of New York!"

The sheer, oppressive authority in the man's voice made the ER doctor pause for a fraction of a second, his hand hovering over the shock button.

The sound of something shattering against a wall echoed outside. "Mobilize every resource!" the man screamed. "Contact our partner Swiss medical center in New York! I want their chief surgeon and his entire team in this room in ten minutes!"

A tiny spark of confusion flared in Aurora's dying brain. The voice was heavy with unfamiliar rage, yet there was a distant, buried familiarity to it.

But her oxygen-starved brain couldn't process it.

"Clear!" the doctor shouted.

A massive jolt of electricity slammed through her chest. Her back arched violently off the mattress.

As her body slammed back down onto the bed, the familiar voice outside was cut off. Aurora sank into an endless, heavy blackness.