Chapter 5

The next time Eloise was conscious, she was being dragged from the cold basement. Her body ached with a constellation of bruises. Holden stood over her, his face grim and unyielding.

"Jaidyn lost a lot of blood," he said, his voice devoid of any warmth. "She's unconscious. The doctors say she needs an emergency transfusion. You're the same blood type."

It was a lie, a transparent and cruel one, but Eloise was too weak to argue.

"You will do this," Holden threatened, his eyes like chips of ice. "You will give her your blood, or I will make you wish you were never born."

His guards pulled her to her feet and half-carried her to a car. They didn't go to a public hospital, but to a private clinic tucked away in a discreet building-a place where money and power could buy silence and complicity.

They threw her onto a bed in a sterile white room. A nurse approached with a needle, her expression nervous.

"Sir, the patient is already very weak," the nurse said, glancing at Eloise's bruised face. "Taking too much blood could be dangerous."

"Do it," Holden commanded, his voice leaving no room for debate. "This is a debt she owes. Take what's needed."

He stood by the door, arms crossed, and watched with cold detachment as the needle slid into Eloise' s arm. He watched as her blood, dark and vital, began to fill the plastic bag.

Eloise felt a dizzying wave of weakness wash over her. The room began to spin. The hum of the medical equipment seemed to grow louder, then fade into a distant buzz. Holden didn't move. He just watched, his expression unreadable, as the bag filled, far beyond the amount for a standard donation.

When the nurse finally removed the needle, Eloise' s arm was limp. She tried to sit up, but the world tilted violently and she fell back against the pillows.

Holden' s guards lifted her and carried her into the adjoining room, dumping her unceremoniously onto a chair next to a hospital bed.

In the bed, looking perfectly peaceful and with a healthy, rosy complexion, was Jaidyn.

"You will stay here," Holden snarled, leaning close to Eloise' s face. "You will watch over her until she wakes up. If anything happens, it will be on you." He turned and swept out of the room, leaving her alone in the suffocating silence.

A wave of nausea rose in Eloise' s throat. She leaned over, dry-heaving, her stomach empty. Her body trembled uncontrollably from the blood loss and the lingering pain of her injuries. She looked at Jaidyn, at her steady, even breathing, and knew with sickening certainty that this was all a monstrous charade.

The door was ajar, and she could hear two nurses whispering in the hallway.

"I can't believe he made us take that much. The patient in there, Miss Albert, her hemoglobin is completely normal. She didn't lose more than a few drops."

"I know. He insisted. Said it was... a lesson. It' s barbaric."

The voices faded. Eloise felt a hysterical laugh bubble in her chest. It was a joke. Her life had become a sick, twisted joke. She was a blood bag, a prop in Jaidyn' s play, and Holden was the willing director.

A soft rustle of sheets made her look up.

Jaidyn's eyes were open. She slowly, deliberately sat up in bed, a triumphant smirk spreading across her face.

"Feeling a little light-headed, Eloise?" she purred, her voice strong and clear.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, stretching like a cat. "Thank you for the donation. My life-saving blood. I feel so... revitalized."

The sheer malice in her eyes was staggering.

"Why?" Eloise whispered, her vision starting to blur at the edges. "Why are you doing all of this?"

"Why?" Jaidyn laughed, a genuine, mocking sound. She walked over and stood in front of Eloise, looking down at her. "Because I wanted him. It's that simple. For ten years, I've watched you with him. You, with your perfect family, your perfect life. You had everything I wanted. Especially him."

"So you lied? You destroyed everything for a man who is too stupid to see the truth?"

"He's not stupid. He's devoted," Jaidyn corrected her, her smile widening. "He sees what he wants to see. And he wants to see a fragile girl who needs his protection. He wants to see a villain he can vanquish. You played that part perfectly."

She leaned down, her face inches from Eloise's. "You lost, Eloise. You lost him. You lost your dignity. You lost everything."

Jaidyn gave her a light shove. It was barely a touch, but in Eloise's weakened state, her body swayed precariously.

Her vision was darkening, the room fading to black.

Just as she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness, the door to the room swung open with force.

A tall, imposing figure stood silhouetted in the doorway. He took in the scene in an instant: Jaidyn standing triumphantly over a pale, collapsing Eloise, an IV stand with an empty blood bag next to her chair.

The man' s eyes, cold and sharp, narrowed into slits of fury.

It was Alphons Woodward.

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