"Denzel!"
Denzel turned sharply, the hospital docunts crinkling in his hand. His eyes widened as he took in the sight of both brothers, but the greeting died on his lips when he noticed the split, swollen skin on their mouths.
Before he could utter a word of concern or apology, Dominick’s voice cut through the sterile air, sharp and impatient. "Where is Juniper?"
Denzel didn’t waste ti with explanations. He reached out and slowly drew back the heavy privacy curtain.
Juniper lay on the narrow hospital bed, her fra looking smaller than Dominick rembered. A clear tube ran from a glucose bag to a needle taped to the back of her hand.
Though the doctors had initially planned to discharge her that morning, her vitals had dipped, forcing them to keep her under observation for another twenty-four hours.
At the sound of the curtain rings sliding against the tal rod, Juniper turned her head. Her eyes, clouded with exhaustion, suddenly snapped into focus.
"Nick? Gabriel!" she gasped, her voice raspy. She struggled to sit up, the sudden movent causing the IV line to tauten. "What are you... what happened to your faces?"
Dominick stood at the foot of the bed, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. Seeing her in such a state, sent a shock through him, but his expression remained a mask of cold.
"Nick, talk to her. I would like to have a conversation with my Gamma too," Dominick said, already walking away.
Denzel set the dical report on the bedside table and stepped back, retreating behind Gabriel. He could read the room; the air was thick with Dominick’s simring agitation.
Dominick reached out and yanked the privacy curtains shut. He sat in the plastic chair beside the bed and picked up the docunt Denzel had left behind. Juniper’s fingers caught in the bedsheets, fidgeting nervously as his eyes scanned the technical jargon.
He stopped at a specific line. The toxicology report indicated trace amounts of silver-based toxins in her bloodstream.
"You were stabbed with a silver blade?" Dominick asked, tilting his head to catch her gaze.
"Yes," Juniper whispered, her voice trembling. "It was... a colleague from my office. He hired soone to do it." She swallowed hard, looking away from his piercing stare. "Denzel found out the details. I told him not to disturb you. I know you didn’t want to see ."
Dominick looked from the paper back to the bandage visible beneath her hospital gown.
"A colleague?" Dominick repeated, his grip tightening on the report until the paper crinkled. "What possible reason would a co-worker have to use an assassin on you?"
Dominick’s frown deepened, a sharp line cutting across his forehead. "You used my na as a threat?"
"He had been looking down on for months," Juniper rushed to explain, her voice rising with a defensive edge. "The entire office talks behind my back, saying... Well, saying terrible things about why the marriage ended and how I’m nothing now. But this colleague said it right to my face. He told I was a failure who didn’t deserve my position."
She looked down at her bandaged arm, her shoulders slumped. "I just wanted him to stop. I told him I still had connections, that I could use my ex to have him kicked out of the company before he could say another word. I thought it would scare him off. I didn’t think he’d actually hire soone to stab with silver."
Dominick leaned back in the plastic chair, the hospital report still gripped in his hand. The irony wasn’t lost on him; he had spent the afternoon arguing with his brothers about how he was finished with her, only to find she had been nearly killed because she couldn’t let go of the shadow of his power.
"How are you doing, Nick?" Juniper asked.
"Better," Dominick replied. "Though I expected you to handle a workplace bully with the sa fire you used to fight everyone at the palace. It seems you’ve lost your touch."
Juniper flinched, the harshness of his remark hitting her harder than the silver toxin. "I regret it every day," she whispered, her gaze dropping to the white sheets. "My greed destroyed everything we had."
Dominick leaned forward, placing the dical docunt back on the bedside table with a hollow thud. "I still don’t understand why you chose to hide so much from , Juniper."
"Because I was terrified you would leave," she said, finally eting his eyes, her own brimming with desperate hope. "Nick, please. You can give a chance. We can fix this."
Dominick looked into her eyes, searching for the woman he once loved, but found only the wreckage of their past. He slowly shook his head.
Juniper’s breath hitched at the ntion of a second chance mate. The hope that had been flickering in her eyes extinguished instantly, replaced by a hollow, stunned silence.
"A second chance..." she whispered, the words barely audible over the hum of the hospital machinery. "So soon?"
Dominick didn’t flinch. "The day you dragged Idris’s na into our ss was the mont I knew there was no path back for us. I rejected you with a clear mind, Juniper. But I am sorry for how the aftermath was handled. I left you to bear the weight of the public’s hate alone, and that was my failing as a Prince. I will fix that, I’ll ensure the narrative changes and that the man who did this to you is ruined, but then I am leaving your life forever."
He leaned back on his chair. "I truly hope you find a way to move on, too. For your own sake."
Juniper’s eyes brimd with tears as she learned that Dominick had found a mate. But this ti, she wasn’t jealous at all.
"Is she kind to you? And not like ?" Juniper asked. "She must be from a well-off family."
"June, your background would have never mattered to if you were honest with since day one. We spent seven years together, but your trust on was negligible. You wanted to fight with Cas for the throne. I couldn’t do that. And I admit I did wrong to you. Also, my mate isn’t from as humble background as you think. But she made a path for herself for where she’s today. I’m not here to talk about her, but to end your miseries."
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