Emilia stared at the black back of her phone where it lay face-down on the drafting table. Her stomach twisted into tight, painful knots. She couldn't breathe. Every inhale felt like sucking air through a crushed straw.
Paige handed her a paper cup of lukewarm water, her brow creased with concern. "Are you in trouble?" she asked softly. "Em, you look like you've seen a ghost."
Emilia quickly looked away, staring at the scuffed floorboards to hide the raw panic swimming in her eyes. "I'm fine," she lied, her voice barely a whisper.
Suddenly, her phone rang. The loud, piercing ringtone made her flinch so hard she knocked her pencil to the floor. The screen lit up with her mother's name: Delphia Price.
Emilia grabbed the phone and bolted out of the studio. She ran into the concrete stairwell, her footsteps echoing in the cold, gray shaft, and ducked into a dark corner behind the stairs. She pressed answer with a trembling thumb.
"Did you get the money?!" Delphia's shrill, hysterical scream pierced right through the speaker, stabbing Emilia in the ear like a hot needle.
Delphia didn't wait for an answer. She sobbed and yelled, her voice ragged and desperate, echoing off the concrete walls. "The hospital gave us the final notice! If we don't pay today, they are throwing your father out of the room! He will die in the street, Emilia! In the street!"
"Mom, I ran into a problem—" Emilia choked out, her throat so tight the words came out strangled.
"I don't want to hear your excuses!" Delphia shrieked, her voice rising to a glass-shattering pitch. "You are useless! You are letting him die! Your own father!"
The vicious words sliced into Emilia's chest like a serrated blade dragged across her heart. Her knees buckled. She slid down the freezing concrete wall, the rough surface scraping her back, until she hit the cold floor. Hot, silent tears spilled over her eyelashes, dropping onto her worn jeans in dark, spreading circles.
The call abruptly disconnected. The dial tone buzzed in her ear like a death knell. The weight of the entire world pressed down on her shoulders, crushing her lungs flat.
Her phone vibrated again in her limp hand. A new text from the burner number. An address. A high-end penthouse in Manhattan—the kind of building with a doorman and a private elevator.
A second text popped up immediately after: Be here at 8 PM for your medical screening. Or face the consequences.
Emilia stared at the words medical screening. Her blood ran cold, freezing in her veins. He was the middleman. The facilitator. He was going to force her into the pre-op exam for the egg harvesting—the first step toward that basement table.
Her fingers hovered over the keypad to dial 911. Three digits. That's all it would take. But the image of her father—pale and dying on a hospital bed, an oxygen tube under his nose, his eyes sunken and hollow—flashed behind her eyes with brutal clarity.
She squeezed her eyes shut until colors burst behind her lids. She bit down on her lower lip so hard she tasted the sharp, metallic tang of blood spreading across her tongue.
She had to get that money. No matter what. No matter what he did to her.
She opened her map app and saved the address with shaking fingers.
At 7:50 PM, Emilia stood on the sidewalk outside the towering, glass-fronted luxury building. Manhattan glittered around her—yellow cabs, well-dressed couples, the distant wail of sirens. She wore a cheap, oversized gray hoodie that swallowed her frame, trying to make herself look as small and invisible as possible.
She took a deep, shaky breath that did nothing to calm her hammering heart and walked into the freezing air-conditioning of the lobby. The space was all black marble and gold accents, dripping with cold luxury. The security guard behind the polished desk—a burly man with a shaved head—looked her up and down with harsh, judging eyes, lingering on her worn sneakers and frayed hoodie.
She gave him the room number, her voice barely audible.
The guard's posture instantly changed. His spine snapped straight, his expression shifting from contempt to extreme, almost fearful respect. He swiped a keycard with brisk efficiency, opening a private elevator that went straight to the penthouse.
The elevator shot upward. The sudden loss of gravity made Emilia's stomach lurch violently. Her palms were slick with cold sweat, leaving damp prints on the brass railing.
The doors slid open with a soft chime. She stepped out into a dimly lit hallway covered in thick, expensive carpet that swallowed her footsteps. Every step felt like walking barefoot on broken glass. She stopped in front of the massive, black double doors at the end of the hall.
Her hand shook violently as she reached out and pressed the doorbell. The buzz sounded deep inside the apartment—low and ominous.
A second later, the heavy lock clicked open automatically, the sound echoing in the silent hallway.
Emilia pushed the heavy door and stepped into the entryway. A blast of frigid air mixed with the faint, expensive scent of cedar and tobacco hit her face, making her shiver.
The living room was dark, lit only by the ambient glow of the city seeping through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Clifton stood with his back to her, pouring a drink at the wet bar. He wore a black silk shirt that clung to the broad, powerful muscles of his shoulders and back.
Hearing her footsteps falter, he turned around. He swirled the amber liquid in his crystal glass, the ice clinking softly.
His eyes locked onto her shivering frame huddled by the door. He looked at her like a predator watching a trapped rabbit tremble in a snare.
"Come here," he ordered, his voice cold and flat as a blade.
