The hospital room was pitch black, save for the faint, rhythmic blinking of the IV machine.
Carlota woke up with a sharp gasp. A brutal wave of cramping tore through her empty uterus. Her forehead was slick with cold sweat. Her throat felt like it was coated in sandpaper.
She reached out with a trembling hand and pressed the red call button attached to her bedrail.
She waited. Five minutes passed. Ten minutes. No nurse came.
The thirst was unbearable. Carlota pushed the heavy blanket off her legs. She gripped the metal IV pole with both hands, using it as a crutch to pull her weak body out of bed. Her bare feet hit the cold linoleum floor.
She shuffled slowly out of the room, dragging the pole behind her. The wheels squeaked faintly.
The hallway was a ghost town. The main nurse's station was eerily quiet, the night shift nurse conveniently missing from her post. The only light came from the half-open door of the Head Nurse’s office at the end of the hall.
Carlota moved toward the water dispenser near the office.
As she reached for a paper cup, a familiar, hushed voice drifted through the gap in the door.
"I've cleared this wing for the next twenty minutes," Chesnee’s voice drifted from the office, cold and calculated. "We talk fast, then we leave."
"You were reckless, Harper."
It was Chesnee Cantu, her stepmother.
Carlota's heart skipped a beat. She froze instantly, pressing her body flat against the wall behind the water dispenser, hiding in the deep shadows.
"If you hadn't pushed her in front of a room full of people, we wouldn't have to clean up this mess," Chesnee scolded, her voice dripping with venom.
"I had to!" Harper hissed back, her voice trembling with panic. "If I didn't kill that baby, Donavan would eventually find out it was his. He would leave me for her!"
Carlota clamped both hands over her mouth. Her eyes widened in sheer horror. Harper didn't push her in a fit of rage. It was a calculated murder.
"Well, the problem is solved," Chesnee said coldly. "I paid Dr. Blackwood enough to keep his mouth shut. That dead fetus was thrown into the incinerator as medical waste hours ago."
The words hit Carlota like a physical punch to the gut. Her baby. Her flesh and blood. Burned like garbage. Her knees buckled. She slid down the wall, her fingers digging into the plaster to keep from collapsing completely.
"What about Carlota?" Harper asked. "She knows I pushed her. She's a ticking time bomb."
Chesnee let out a low, chilling laugh. "Don't worry about her. I've already made a call to my old associates from the Eastern European syndicate."
Carlota's blood ran ice cold.
"As soon as she is discharged, we will drug her," Chesnee explained smoothly. "They will put her on a cargo ship with a fake passport. She'll be sold to a red-light district in Romania. She will never see the sun again."
"Good," Harper said, her voice filled with cruel excitement. "Let her rot."
"This is what Clifford Hall deserves," Chesnee spat, her voice suddenly twisting with a deep, ancient hatred. The name 'Clifford Hall' sent a jolt through her. Her father’s real name—the one he had buried along with his past. So the rumors were true; Chesnee hadn't married him for money, but for a vendetta. Her father’s hidden past, the secret he died protecting, was being dragged into the light. "I will make sure the Hall family bloodline is wiped from the face of the earth. Once Carlota is on that ship, I will personally go to the ICU and pull the plug on that sickly little brother of hers."
The sheer terror paralyzing Carlota vanished. The mention of Graham's name ignited a fire in her veins. It wasn't just greed. Chesnee wanted them dead. She wanted to exterminate her entire family.
Carlota's breathing turned ragged. Her fingers curled into tight fists. Her fingernails pierced the skin of her palms, drawing blood.
She heard the squeak of an office chair and footsteps approaching the door.
Panic spiked. Carlota grabbed the IV pole. Ignoring the agonizing pain in her abdomen, she moved as fast and silently as a shadow, retreating down the hall.
She slipped back into her room, climbed into the bed, and pulled the blanket up to her chin.
Seconds later, the door to her room slowly creaked open.
Carlota squeezed her eyes shut. She forced her chest to rise and fall in a slow, steady rhythm.
Chesnee stood in the doorway. The dim light from the hall cast a long, sinister shadow across Carlota's bed. Chesnee watched her for a full minute, listening to her breathing.
Satisfied that Carlota was deeply asleep, Chesnee quietly closed the door. The lock clicked into place.
Carlota's eyes snapped open in the dark. They were no longer the eyes of a victim. They were cold, hard, and burning with a murderous intent.
She reached over and violently ripped the IV needle out of the back of her hand. Blood welled up, dripping onto the white sheets, but she didn't feel the pain.
She reached under her mattress and pulled out her old, cracked backup cell phone. She had sworn never to touch this phone again. To Hector, a favor wasn't bought with money, but with one's soul. She had spent years trying to be 'normal' for Graham, choosing the humiliation of a contract marriage and crushing debt just to keep him away from that world. But now, the 'clean' life she fought for was a lie, and the cost of that normalcy was her baby’s life. She turned it on, the bright screen illuminating her pale, tear-stained face.
Her fingers flew across the keypad. She dialed a number she hadn't called in years—a number that would tether her back to the darkness she once escaped.
The phone rang twice before a raspy voice answered. "Hello?"
"Hector," Carlota whispered into the receiver, her voice trembling with cold rage. "I need your help. They are trying to kill us."
