Thunderous applause erupted from the audience.
Alma lowered her head with a demure smile, her eyes blazing with ambition.
BANG.
The heavy double doors of the banquet hall were shoved open from outside.
Every pair of eyes in the room snapped toward the entrance.
I walked in wearing a crimson gown beneath a black overcoat, flanked by Quinn and over a dozen bodyguards in dark suits.
William's smile froze on his face. Then his brow furrowed.
He strode off the stage, his voice a harsh whisper. "Seraphina, what the hell are you doing here? I told you to bring the authorization documents, not crash the event!"
Alma sidled up beside him, her voice dripping with wounded innocence. "Seraphina, even if you're upset with me, you can't cause a scene on such an important day for William..."
I didn't spare either of them a glance. I walked straight to the stage and picked up the microphone.
"Has Mr. Stephens gotten something confused?" My gaze swept the room, my voice cool and precise. "The neuro-degenerative therapy patent belongs to YZ Medical Consortium. And I, Seraphina Ashford, am YZ's sole executive director."
Silence swallowed the room whole.
William froze. His pupils contracted sharply. "What did you just say? YZ Consortium? Seraphina, have you lost your mind? Where do you get the nerve to impersonate—"
"Director Lambert." I cut him off.
The director of the private hospital, who had been seated in the VIP section all evening, rose immediately. He walked to me with measured steps and bowed deeply. "Director Ashford, the legal documents you requested are ready."
The silence that followed was absolute.
William looked as though lightning had struck him where he stood. He stared at me, disbelief cracking his composure wide open. "You... you're really YZ's executive director? Then these past five years..."
"These past five years were nothing more than me playing house with you." I hurled a thick stack of documents into his face. "Effective immediately, YZ Medical Consortium is revoking all patent authorizations to the Stephens Group and pulling every cent of investment. William, your IPO dream is over."
William's entire body trembled. The color drained from his face until he was white as paper.
The realization of what he'd lost hit him all at once. He lunged forward, grabbing for my hand. "Seraphina! Listen to me, let me explain. I didn't know. I didn't know it was you! I love you. I was deceived—"
"Deceived?" I let out a cold laugh. I was about to expose the truth about Alma's staged car accident when a vicious pain tore through my abdomen.
"Ngh..." A strangled groan escaped my lips. My knees buckled, and I nearly collapsed to the floor.
"Miss Ashford!" Quinn caught me in his arms before I hit the ground, his face going ghost-white in an instant.
I looked down with shaking hands. Bright red blood was streaming down my legs, soaking into the hem of my gown.
"Blood... my baby..." I clutched Quinn's jacket with everything I had, the pain so severe I could barely breathe.
William saw the blood pooling on the floor and panicked completely. He rushed toward me. "Seraphina! How is this happening? Someone call an ambulance!"
"Get away from her!" Quinn's foot connected with William's chest, sending him flying backward. Quinn's eyes were rimmed red, his voice raw with fury. "You animal! She hasn't touched anything these past few days except that chicken soup you made her with your own hands!"
William hit the ground hard. The words registered slowly, and then all the blood left his face. He turned, stiff as a corpse, to look at Alma.
Alma stumbled backward, her face ashen. "No... it wasn't me... William, I just thought Seraphina seemed stressed, so I added some herbal ingredients to help her cool down... I didn't know it would cause a miscarriage!"
"It was you..." William's eyes went wide, horror and rage flooding through him in equal measure.
The tonic he had brewed with his own hands for his wife, meant to protect their unborn child, had become the poison that killed it.
The debt of gratitude he'd never stopped talking about had destroyed everything he had.
"Seraphina... I'm sorry... I didn't know..."
William crawled toward me on his knees, tears streaming down his face.
But I was already fading in Quinn's arms, consciousness slipping away as darkness swallowed me whole.
"If anything happens to her or the baby—"
Quinn carried me toward the exit. As he passed William, he left behind a single, ice-cold sentence.
"William Stephens, I will bury your entire family."
