"Sign this. It's a liability waiver," Dominic said, his voice completely devoid of emotion. "It states that you were the one speeding. That you caused the accident. It clears Jasmine of all fault."
"Are you... insane?" I gasped, blood bubbling past my lips. "She ran the light! She tried to kill me! Dominic, please... the baby... the baby is dying!"
"Jasmine has a fragile heart condition, Sasha," he replied coldly, not even flinching at my tears. "If the police arrest her, the shock could kill her. She can't handle a criminal investigation."
"And I can?!" I screamed, the sound tearing my vocal cords. "I'm your wife! I'm carrying your flesh and blood!"
"Just sign the damn paper, Sasha!" he barked, his patience snapping. "Once you sign it, I’ll let the paramedics take you to the hospital. If you don't..."
He took a step back, his eyes narrowing into cold, heartless slits.
"...Then you can sit here and bleed."
My entire world stopped spinning.
Just ten minutes ago, I had been driving to the hospital for a routine checkup.
Then, the sleek red sports car had blatantly run the red light and T-boned me at full speed.
When I forced my heavy eyelids open, pinned against the steering wheel with a searing agony ripping through my abdomen, I saw the driver of the red car step out.
It was Jasmine. Dominic’s "best friend." The woman who had hovered like a ghost over my entire three-year marriage.
I had gasped for help, bleeding and terrified for my baby, when the familiar screech of tires cut through the storm.
Dominic’s black Maybach had swerved into the intersection. My heart had leaped into my throat.
My husband had come to save me.
But he hadn't even glanced at my mangled car.
Instead, Dominic had run straight toward Jasmine, his face pale with a frantic, desperate terror I had never seen him show for me.
He had wrapped his expensive coat around her while she sobbed hysterically, lying that I was the one who hadn't stopped.
She had aimed right for my passenger side, right where my baby was most vulnerable, and yet Dominic was comforting her.
When the ambulance finally arrived, hope had flared in my chest. The paramedics had rushed toward my car with the jaws of life, shouting about my critical condition.
But before they could touch my door, Dominic had stepped directly in front of them.
He had used his imposing presence to physically block them from reaching me, pulling a folded piece of paper from his jacket.
Which brought us back to this agonizing present.
"Ma'am! Hold on!" the paramedic yelled from behind Dominic, trying to push past his towering frame. "Sir, this is illegal! You are endangering her life!"
"I am Dominic Sterling," he snapped at the EMT, not breaking eye contact with me. "Touch that car before she signs this, and I will ensure you never work in this city again."
The paramedic froze, intimidated by the sheer power and wealth behind Dominic's name.
Inside my womb, the frantic kicking of my baby suddenly began to slow down.
The movements were getting weaker. Fainter.
Panic, pure and primal, seized my brain. My baby was suffocating. My baby was dying.
I looked at Dominic. The man I had loved for five years was dead. The monster standing before me was a stranger.
I didn't have the strength to fight him. I didn't have the time to argue.
With trembling, blood-soaked fingers, I reached out and took the pen he held out to me.
Every movement was agony. My tears fell onto the crisp white paper, mixing with the crimson blood dripping from my forehead.
I scrawled my name at the bottom of the waiver.
The moment the pen lifted, Dominic snatched the paper away, inspecting the signature with a satisfied nod. He didn't even look at me again.
He just turned his back and finally signaled the paramedics to move in.
"Take her," he said dismissively, walking back to wrap his arms around Jasmine.
The paramedics swarmed my car, their voices a chaotic blur of medical jargon.
"Heart rate is dropping! We're losing her!"
"Stay with us, ma'am! Keep your eyes open!"
But I couldn't.
The darkness was already pulling me under.
As my eyes fluttered shut, the last thing I saw was Dominic carefully shielding Jasmine from the rain, completely indifferent to the fact that his wife and child were dying in the wreckage behind him.
The last trace of love I had for this man vanished.
If I survived this... I would make them pay.
