Chapter 5
“Ely?” he breathed.
He stared at me like he’d just been shot.
Behind him, Arianne had gone quiet.
Then, like a mask sliding back into place, she resumed her sobbing. A second later, she reached for the hem of his shirt with a pitiful whimper: “Alaric, I-”
But he wasn’t there.
Alaric had already rushed forward, scooping me into his arms. He instinctively barked for the medical team–but after one look at Arianne’s trembling form, he only took half of them with
nim.
Even so, they were all top–tier cardiac specialists.
Within minutes, the doctors emerged, grim–faced.
‘Her condition is extremely complex,” one said. “We’ll need to transfer her to Texas immediately or surgery.”
Alaric frowned. “Aren’t you the best in the field? You can’t operate here?”
The lead surgeon hesitated, eyes dark. “It’s not that simple.”
Back in the corridor, Alaric stood frozen.
After Seraphine’s death, he hadn’t touched me again–not since I refused to testify.
He hadn’t even noticed the scar on my chest.
Now, it haunted him.
Just before the surgery, I drifted into consciousness. A doctor stood over me in a white coat.
With the last ounce of strength in my body, I whispered, “When I die… give what’s in my heart… to
he police…”
The man nodded silently.
Nearby, Alaric stood in a sterile suit, stunned. His lips moved as if he wanted to ask something- out I was already slipping away.
Moments later, the surgeon reappeared, forehead drenched in sweat.
‘There’s a foreign object lodged in her heart,” he said, voice low. “It’s close to major vessels, but hasn’t ruptured anything yet.”
Alaric’s heart dropped.
‘Can you remove it?”
The doctor shook his head. “It’s extremely risky. If we hit the artery, her chances of survival are ess than thirty percent.”
‘Can it stay in her body?”
‘Honestly? It’s a miracle it hasn’t pierced the aorta already,” the surgeon admitted. “We can’t guarantee it won’t shift at any moment and cause cardiac arrest.”
Alaric’s breath hitched.
Chapter 5
2/2 50.0%
3:39 pm
“In her current state,” the doctor continued, “hospitalization is our only option. She needs round–the–clock monitoring while we decide the best surgical approach.”
He had no choice.
So he waited outside the ward, consumed by helplessness.
Chanterk
