Daria POV:
The car ride was a dizzying smear of neon lights and agonizing bumps.
Every vibration sent a fresh spasm of nausea rolling through me.
Alois drove with one hand on the wheel, the other pressing a towel hard against the bleeding wound on my arm.
"Don't sleep," he commanded.
"It hurts," I mumbled, my words slurring.
"Good. Pain means you're alive."
He swerved sharply into an alleyway behind a dilapidated veterinary clinic.
Not a hospital.
We couldn't go to a hospital. Kaeden had eyes everywhere.
Alois kicked the back door open, hauling me out and carrying me inside.
The sharp sting of antiseptic mixed with the earthy scent of dog food hit me.
A man in a lab coat rushed out.
He wasn't Dr. Gates.
He was older, his hands shaking.
"Alois? You said you were bringing a dog with a gunshot wound!" the vet stammered, eyes widening.
"Plans changed," Alois growled, depositing me on the cold stainless steel table. "Save her. And the child."
"I'm a vet! I can't-I treat animals, I don't-"
Alois pulled a gun and slammed it on the counter.
"You're a doctor. Figure it out."
The vet swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing, and grabbed a stethoscope.
He ripped open my blouse.
He hissed through his teeth when he saw the burns.
"Electrical," he muttered, horror in his voice. "Who did this?"
"Is there a heartbeat?" Alois asked, cutting through the question.
The vet moved the ultrasound probe over my bruised stomach.
Silence.
My world stopped.
Please. God, please. Take me, but not him.
Whoosh-whoosh. Whoosh-whoosh.
A faint, rapid rhythm filled the room.
I let out a sob that felt like it tore my chest open.
"Fetal heartbeat is distressed but present," the vet said, working with frantic efficiency now. "She's dehydrated. In shock. Severe electrical trauma. I need to stabilize her before her kidneys shut down."
"Do it," Alois said.
He stood by the door, watching the alley, his gun loose but ready in hand.
I looked at him, vision swimming.
"Why?" I whispered.
He turned his gaze to me.
For the first time, I saw something other than cold lethality in his eyes.
I saw a debt.
"Three years ago," he said quietly. "My daughter. Leukemia. The insurance company denied the experimental treatment. You were on the board of the charity."
I blinked, the memory hazy through the pain.
I had signed thousands of papers.
"You pushed it through," he said. "You paid the deductible from your personal account. You didn't know who I was. You just saw a dying girl."
Tears leaked from my eyes, hot tracks on my cold skin.
"She lived?"
"She's seven now," Alois said, his voice softening just a fraction. "She likes horses."
He looked away, his jaw tightening.
"Kaeden threw you away like garbage. But to me... you are the reason my world still spins."
The vet stuck a needle in my arm.
"I'm giving her a sedative," the vet said. "She needs to rest to lower the stress on the fetus."
The room began to tilt and spin.
"Kaeden..." I murmured, the drug pulling me under like a heavy tide.
"Kaeden is dead to you," Alois's voice was the last thing I heard. "You died in a fire tonight, Daria. The woman you were is gone."
