Chapter 2

He wasn't sure how long he lay there, drifting in and out.

Thirst was a fire in his throat, the heat inside the pump house unbearable.

Then voices, distant, muffled. The scrape of the lock.

Cooler air, then hands, lifting him. Rough, but not like the others.

He heard the whine of a siren, a long, painful journey.

The hospital was a blur of hushed voices and the smell of antiseptic.

He felt needles, tubes. He was too weak to fight, too weak to speak.

He heard Eleanor's voice, cold and precise, talking to a doctor.

"He needs the best team, of course. But there's no rush on the major procedures. Let him stabilize."

Stabilize? He was burning up, his insides screaming.

Later, through a fog of pain and medication, he heard her again, closer this time, with Liam.

"This is a tragedy, of course," Eleanor said, her voice smooth as silk. "But it simplifies things. With Ethan... incapacitated, you and Izzy can finally secure the Vance empire. He was always an unruly, ambitious threat, just like his father."

Liam's voice, smug. "He won't be a problem anymore."

"And Victor has been such a help," Eleanor continued, "saving Marcus's life all those years ago with that kidney. I owe him so much."

Victor Sterling. Her lover. The ranch manager who always had her ear.

Ethan' s mind, sluggish as it was, pieced it together.

His return home wasn't a homecoming, it was a carefully laid death trap.

He felt a doctor' s presence. "Mrs. Vance, the infection in his legs is spreading rapidly. The tissue is dying. If we delay surgery any longer, we're looking at catastrophic organ damage. We'll have to amputate, below the knees, to save his life."

A pause. Then Eleanor's voice, devoid of any warmth.

"Do what you must. He won't be needing to carry on the Vance name anyway."

He felt a hand, smaller, softer, touch his arm. Izzy.

"Eleanor, are you sure? This is... extreme," she whispered, a faint tremor in her voice.

"It's necessary, Isabella. For the family. For Liam." Eleanor's tone was final.

Ethan kept his breathing even, feigning deep unconsciousness.

His mind raced. Victor Sterling. The kidney. His childhood "accident," the one that supposedly took him from his family, now seemed less like an accident and more like a rehearsal.