Hester pressed her lips together and refused to say a word. I was about to slap her again when Mick's hand shot out and clamped around my wrist like a vise.
His expression was terrifyingly dark, his voice cold as ice.
"Ebony, are you done making a scene? Give me an explanation!"
"What the hell is going on? Whose child is she?"
Looking at that face, I suddenly found the whole thing laughable.
"Explain what? Mick, we're already divorced!"
"What I do has nothing to do with you. I don't owe you a single explanation."
"What did you just say?"
My words pushed him over the edge. His chest heaved violently, and the fury in his eyes burned hot enough to consume me whole. He released my wrist and turned toward the hallway outside the room, his voice a roar:
"Every doctor in this wing, get over here. Stop all treatment for this child immediately."
The words hit me like a bolt of lightning. My entire body went rigid, and the blood in my veins turned to ice.
How could I have forgotten? Mick held shares in this hospital.
He had more than enough power to shut down Bella's treatment with a single sentence.
And today was the day of Bella's leg surgery. It was her only chance of ever walking again. Nothing could go wrong. Nothing.
The anger that had blazed through me moments ago vanished without a trace, replaced by a terror that sank straight to the bone.
I stumbled forward and grabbed the hem of Mick's jacket.
"Mick, don't..."
"Don't stop the treatment. Today is Bella's surgery. It's important. It's so important."
Mick looked down at me, fury blazing in his eyes.
"So that's what it was. You got close to me, you played nice, and none of it was real. It was all for this child. You were using my money to raise someone else's kid?"
Hester saw her opening and pounced. She clutched at me, sobbing as she spoke.
"Mick, she planned this from the start. She's been using you all along."
Her words were the final spark. Mick whipped around and bellowed at the medical staff inside the room.
"Every doctor, every nurse, get out! Now!"
"All treatment for this child stops immediately. Anyone who touches her again is fired on the spot."
The doctors and nurses who had been stationed outside the room, ready to take Bella into surgery at any moment, went white as sheets. They glanced at one another, then at Mick, and one by one, heads bowed, they filed out in silence.
The door to the room swung shut.
My legs gave out beneath me, and the tears I'd been holding back finally spilled down my cheeks.
I grabbed Mick's sleeve and held on for dear life, my voice cracking.
"Mick, please. Let her go. Bella is innocent. If you spare her, I'll do anything. Anything."
Mick let out a cold laugh, enunciating every syllable.
"She means that much to you?"
"Yes."
The word left my mouth before I could think. There wasn't a shred of hesitation. "She means more to me than my own life."
Something in that sentence made him laugh, a sharp, ugly sound.
"Fine, Ebony. Then get on your knees. Kneel down and beg me."
I closed my eyes. My heart sank to the bottom of an abyss.
Dignity. Pride. Every line I'd ever drawn for myself. In front of Bella, none of it mattered.
I let go of his sleeve. My knees began to bend.
Then a warm, steady hand closed around my arm from behind and pulled me upright. A low, quiet laugh broke over the top of my head like thunder on a clear day.
"Using your power to settle a personal grudge, Mr. Delgado?"
