Chapter 3

"Call 911!" I screamed, my voice shredding in my throat. I laid Ethan gently on the floor and started chest compressions, the CPR training my mother had insisted I take years ago kicking in on pure instinct.

Liam finally moved, rushing to my side, but his face was white with panic and confusion. "What are you doing?"

"He's not breathing, you idiot! Call an ambulance!" I yelled, not stopping the rhythmic push on my brother's small chest.

My father was fumbling with his phone, his hands shaking. "What's the number? What do I say?"

"He's a child in cardiac arrest!" I sobbed, tears blurring my vision. "Just tell them that!"

Chloe stood back, her arms crossed, watching the scene with a chilling detachment. "You're overreacting, Ava. You're going to hurt him, pressing on him like that."

"Get out!" I roared at her, a wave of pure, unadulterated hatred washing over me. "Get away from him!"

The paramedics arrived in a blur of sirens and frantic energy. They took over immediately, their movements efficient and professional. They stabilized Ethan, got him on a stretcher, and rushed him out to the ambulance. I scrambled in after them, refusing to leave his side. I didn't look back at the three figures standing in the doorway of that cold, silent house.

At the hospital, the emergency room was a chaotic symphony of beeps, hurried voices, and the sterile smell of antiseptic. They wheeled Ethan into a trauma room, and a nurse gently but firmly guided me to a waiting area.

"We'll do everything we can," she said, her voice kind. "A doctor will be out to speak with you soon."

The minutes stretched into an hour. I sat on a hard plastic chair, my hands stained with my brother's tears and my own. I was alone. Richard and Chloe hadn't come. Of course they hadn't. An emergency room was too messy, too real for them.

My mind drifted back, a flood of unwanted memories. I remembered being a little girl, hiding in the art gallery while my mother painted, the only place I ever felt safe. After she died in a car crash, Richard had married Chloe's mother within a year. When she also passed away a few years later, it became just the four of us. Richard, blinded by his own needs, had allowed Chloe to rule the house. I became the invisible girl, and Ethan, born with a weak heart, became my sole reason for existing. He was the only person in that house who looked at me with pure, unconditional love. He was all I had left of my mother.

A doctor in blue scrubs finally came out. He had a grim expression on his face.

"Miss Reed? I'm Dr. Evans."

I stood up, my legs weak. "My brother... is he...?"

"He's stable for now," the doctor said, guiding me to a private consultation room. "We managed to resuscitate him. But I have to be honest with you, his condition is extremely serious."

He pulled up Ethan's chart on a computer screen. "We ran a full toxicology screen and analyzed his current medication. There's something you need to see."

He pointed to a line on the report. "Your brother is on a specific beta-blocker for his arrhythmia. The dosage in his system is nearly three times what his prescription allows for. At that level, it doesn't regulate his heart; it suppresses it. It acts like a poison. It's the reason he went into cardiac arrest."

The doctor's words hung in the air, cold and sharp. I stared at the screen, my mind struggling to process the information.

"...maybe we should slightly increase the dosage of his beta-blockers..."

Chloe's voice echoed in my head. She hadn't just suggested it to Liam. She had been doing it all along. This wasn't the first time. She had been slowly, deliberately poisoning my brother. To what end? To keep Liam tethered to her? To make Ethan a permanent, dependent patient that only "caring" Chloe and her pet doctor could manage?

The sheer, calculated evil of it took my breath away. It was a web of deception and malice far darker than I had ever imagined. Liam wasn't just an unwitting pawn; his negligence, his blind trust in Chloe, had nearly killed my brother.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. The caller ID flashed Chloe.

I answered, my hand shaking with rage.

"Well?" Chloe's voice was dripping with condescending pity. "Have you finished your little drama yet? Is Ethan okay? You really need to learn to control your temper, Ava. You cause so much unnecessary stress for everyone."

I couldn't speak. My throat was tight with a mixture of grief and fury.

"You see?" Chloe continued, her voice turning smug. "This is why you can't be trusted with him. You're unstable. Once you're married and gone, Liam and I will make sure Ethan gets the proper, consistent care he needs."

"You poisoned him," I whispered, the words feeling like glass in my mouth.

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line. Then Chloe laughed, a sound so devoid of humanity it made my skin crawl.

"Don't be ridiculous, Ava. You're hysterical. You should really get some rest. You have a wedding to prepare for, after all."

She hung up.

I stood there, the dead line buzzing in my ear. The world had tilted on its axis. My family wasn't just manipulative and cruel; they were monstrous. And I had been about to hand my brother over to them.

No more.

The deal was off. My weak pleas for custody and an art gallery were meaningless now. This was a war. And I was done being a victim.

I looked at Dr. Evans, a new, hard resolve solidifying inside me. "You said my brother's condition is serious. What does he need? What's the best treatment, anywhere in the world?"

Dr. Evans looked surprised by my sudden shift in tone. "The absolute best? There's a surgeon in Switzerland, Dr. Allemann. He's pioneering a new microsurgical technique that could potentially correct the defect entirely. But the cost is astronomical. It's millions of dollars."

Millions of dollars. An impossible number.

But I was about to marry Noah Blackwood. A man rumored to be one of the richest in the world. A man who needed a bride.

I had been running from this marriage. Now, it was my only weapon. I would not just marry him. I would go to him, tell him everything, and beg for his help. I would use his power to save Ethan and to burn Chloe and Liam's world to the ground.

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