DAMIEN’S POV - 11:47 AM
Damien sat beside Aria’s hospital bed, holding her hand, watching the monitors that tracked her declining vitals. He’d been sitting here for three hours. Hadn’t moved. Hadn’t eaten. Couldn’t think about anything except the fact that she was dying and he couldn’t stop it.
"Mr. Blackwood." Dr. Morrison entered with another doctor....Dr. Patricia, head of toxicology. "We’ve run every test we have. Cross-referenced the substance against every known poison, drug, and chemical compound in our databases."
"And?" Damien’s voice was hoarse.
"Nothing matches. Whatever is in her system...." Dr. Chen shook her head. "It’s not in any dical literature. Not in any toxicology database. We’ve sent samples to the CDC, to Johns Hopkins, to every research facility we have contacts with. No one has seen anything like this."
"So you’re telling you can’t help her." It wasn’t a question.
"We’re doing everything we can to keep her organs functioning, to slow the progression. But without knowing what we’re fighting...." Morrison’s frustration was evident. "I’m sorry, Mr. Blackwood. Without the source compound or an antidote, we’re just buying ti."
"How much ti?"
Dr. Chen’s expression was grave. "Best case? Forty-eight hours. But her liver function is already declining faster than we anticipated. It could be less."
Damien looked at Aria...pale, still, breathing with the assistance of machines. The woman who’d survived infiltrating his estate, survived her mother’s illness, survived a kidnapping. Now dying from sothing invisible, sothing no one could identify.
"Leave us," he said quietly.
The doctors exchanged glances but retreated, closing the door softly behind them.
Damien stood and moved to the window, his hands clenched into fists. He wanted to destroy sothing. Wanted to find Harold Ashford and tear him apart with his bare hands. Wanted to make whoever did this suffer in ways they couldn’t imagine.
But none of that would save Aria.
His phone buzzed. Marcus.
"Tell you found him," Damien said without preamble.
"Not yet. But boss...we identified the nurse who had access to Aria’s room during the night shift. Elina Martinez. She called in sick this morning, hasn’t answered her phone. Her daughter’s school says she pulled Emma out yesterday, said there was a family ergency."
"She’s running."
"Or she’s scared. I sent a team to her apartnt. She’s not there, but..." Marcus paused. "Boss, we found sothing. A burner phone hidden in her locker at the hospital. Text ssages from an unknown number threatening her daughter if she didn’t cooperate."
Damien’s jaw tightened. "She was forced."
"Looks that way. Whoever did this threatened her child. She chose her daughter over Aria."
"Find her anyway. She might know sothing about the substance, about who gave it to her."
"Already on it. But Boss..." Marcus’s voice beca more urgent. "You need to see this. I’m sending you a screenshot now."
Damien’s phone buzzed with an image. A text ssage thread between Elina Martinez and an unknown number. The last ssage made his blood run cold:
The substance has no antidote in any hospital. Only I have the cure. And I’m willing to share it. For a price.
Another ssage arrived on Damien’s personal phone. Unknown number.
Hello, Blackwood. I imagine your doctors are quite puzzled right now. Let save them so ti: they won’t figure it out. The substance in Aria’s system was developed by a pharmaceutical company that no longer exists....thanks to your girlfriend’s hacking skills years ago. Ironic, isn’t it? She destroyed the only research that could save her.
But I have the antidote. The only one. And I’m willing to give it to you. For $50 million and the signed transfer of Blackwood Enterprises to my na. Small price for the woman you love.
You have 36 hours before her organs shut down completely. Clock’s ticking. I’ll send wire transfer instructions within the hour.
-H
Damien read the ssage three tis. Harold wanted fifty million dollars and his entire company. Everything Damien had built, everything the Blackwood na stood for, in exchange for Aria’s life.
There was no hesitation. No debate. No mont of weighing options.
"Marcus," Damien said into the phone. "Prepare the wire transfer. Fifty million. Get our lawyers to draw up the papers transferring Blackwood Enterprises."
"Boss, you can’t..."
"DO IT!" Damien’s roar echoed through the hospital room. "I don’t care about the money. I don’t care about the company. Get what he’s asking for."
"Damien, think about this...."
"I am thinking! Aria has thirty-six hours to live unless I give Harold exactly what he wants. So that’s what I’m going to do. No debate. No negotiation. Just get it done."
He ended the call and returned to Aria’s bedside, taking her cold hand in both of his.
"I’m going to fix this," he whispered. "Whatever it costs. Whatever I have to give up. You’re not dying. I won’t let you die."
The door burst open. Alexander Wei strode in, his expression thunderous. He took one look at Aria in the hospital bed and sothing cracked in his carefully controlled facade.
"What happened?" His voice was dangerously quiet. "Marcus called . Said Aria was poisoned. Inside the hospital. How is that possible?"
Damien stood. "We’re still determining...."
"How is it POSSIBLE?" Alexander’s roar was even louder than Damien’s had been. "She was under your protection! In a hospital! With security everywhere! And soone still managed to poison her?"
"A nurse was blackmailed..."
"I don’t care about excuses!" Alexander moved to Aria’s bedside, his hand hovering over her face like he was afraid to touch her. "I just found her. After twenty-five years of searching, I finally found my daughter. And now..." His voice broke. "Now she’s dying because you couldn’t protect her."
"You think I don’t know that?" Damien’s voice was raw. "You think I’m not aware that this happened on my watch? Under my protection?"
"Then why is she lying here?" Alexander turned on him, his eyes blazing. "Why is my daughter dying while you stand there?"
"Because I’m human! Because I can’t be everywhere! Because Harold Ashford is a desperate, dangerous man who will do anything for revenge!"
"Then you should have killed him when you had the chance!" Alexander was in Damien’s face now. "You had him in that warehouse. You should have ended him. Instead, you let him escape, and now he’s done THIS!"
Dr. Morrison rushed in. "Gentlen, please! This is a hospital...."
"My daughter is dying!" Alexander’s voice cracked with anguish. "Do you understand? My only child. The daughter I spent twenty-five years searching for. And she’s dying because..." He couldn’t finish.
Damien saw the grief beneath Alexander’s rage. Recognized it because he felt it too...the absolute helplessness of watching soone you love slip away while you can do nothing to stop it.
"Harold has the antidote," Damien said quietly. "He wants fifty million and my company in exchange."
Alexander went very still. "And you’re going to give it to him."
"Without hesitation."
"Good." Alexander’s voice was steady now, deadly calm. "Whatever he wants. Whatever it takes. We pay it."
"We?"
"You think you’re the only one who loves her?" Alexander’s laugh was bitter. "I’ll burn down every building I own, sell every asset, destroy my entire empire if it ans saving her life. Money ans nothing. Companies an nothing. She’s all that matters."
For the first ti since Alexander had arrived, Damien felt sothing like kinship with the man. They were both powerful, both ruthless, both accustod to controlling everything around them.
And both were completely powerless to save the woman they loved.
"I’m sorry," Damien said quietly. "For letting this happen. For not protecting her better."
Alexander was silent for a long mont. Then: "We’ll discuss your failures after she’s safe. Right now, we work together. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
They stood on opposite sides of Aria’s bed, two n who would burn the world to save her, united for the mont by desperation and love.
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