Chapter 25
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DIANA
The walls of the hospital felt like they were closing in, but I didn’t spiral. I sat quietly, calm on the outside, yet inside, my heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my ears.
Damien had left earlier, I followed him quietly, keeping a careful distance, and saw him slip into the doctor’s office. My heart skipped a beat. I wanted to barge in, to yank the doctor aside, to do anything to stop whatever conversation they were about to have. But what could I really say? What excuse would I give? At this point, there was nothing I could do without raising suspicion.
I paced the hallway like a woman being hunted. My hands trembled, so I shoved them into my pockets. My legs felt weak, but I couldn’t sit. I pulled out my phone and did a frantic search–do you need a maternity test for bone marrow donation? My fingers stumbled over the screen as I typed.
The answer glowed back at me like a lifeline: No.
You didn’t need a maternity or paternity test to check for a match.
I exhaled, slowly, shakily. Relief poured over me like warm water. The test wasn’t mandatory. There was still hope. I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat and returned to Jeff’s room, my expression carefully arranged, my posture softer now.
I reached out and held Jeff’s hand. It felt colder than I remembered, but I gripped it like I was holding on to my own salvation. Around us, the room buzzed faintly with machines and that awful sterile scent hospitals always had, but I looked around as though it were a palace. A twisted, broken part of me… felt oddly at peace.
This situation–this moment–might just turn out in my favor.
Jeff’s condition was dire enough that I could finally play the role convincingly. I could be the mother. The loving, selfless mother, the woman who would risk anything for her child.
I had underestimated him. That much I could admit now. Jeff had ratted me out, maybe not intentionally, maybe just by being observant, but he had spoken to Damien. That’s why Damien took him away from me, why he treated me with cold politeness instead of passion.
But things were changing now. The scales were tipping. All I needed was one of two outcomes, and either would work beautifully.
First, if only my bone marrow matched his, everything would fall into place. I’d offer it willingly, even tearfully, and Damien… Damien would be mine. He would owe me his son’s life. He’d be too grateful, too indebted to ever let me go. Marriage would be a small price to pay for saving Jett
But if I wasn’t a match… then I hoped…. no, I prayed that no one else was either. I hoped the only viable option left would be the cord blood of a future sibling.
Because Damien loved Jeff more than he loved anything else. He wouldn’t hesitate. He would get me pregnant without question, and we would wait. Nine months. Just nine months. Jeff might live to see the birth… or he might not. But either way, Damien would never leave me again. I would carry his child….our child, and he would be bound to me forever.
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Chapter 25
And this time, the child would be mine. My blood. My baby.
One I could actually love.
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I curled my fingers tighter around Damien’s hand, leaned my head softly toward his shoulder, and closed my
eyes.
Let fate play its hand.
But let it deal me the winning card.
I kept sitting there beside Jeff, his tiny hand resting in mine, my thumb gently brushing the back of it in slow, delicate strokes. I angled my face just right, my lips slightly trembling, tears clinging to the edges of my lashes, a soft smile playing on my lips as if I was whispering silent prayers into the air.
It was all part of the performance.
A mother’s grief. A mother’s hope. A mother’s love.
I played the role like it was stitched into my skin. And maybe, in some strange way, it was. Maybe I had worn this mask for so long it no longer felt like acting. Maybe it had become my reality.
I was just beginning to imagine the press of Damien’s arms around me, the gratitude in his voice when he found out I was Jeff’s match, when I heard footsteps.
Measured and familiar.
I didn’t even need to look. It was Damien.
Quickly, instinctively, I squeezed Jeff’s hand tighter, then let the tears come more freely. I shifted in my seat just slightly, angling myself so that if Damien was watching, he’d see me as a woman trying not to break.
Let him think I was shattered. Let him believe I was desperate to save our son. Let him forget all the doubts
he had ever entertained about me.
I heard him enter, but he said nothing. The silence stretched like string pulled tight. I waited for his voice. A cough. Even a sigh. But there was nothing.
Finally, I turned around.
He was standing by the door, his eyes fixed on me, or maybe not on me. Through me, I couldn’t tell. His face was unreadable, as blank as winter glass. It sent a jolt through me.
But I told myself it was sadness. That had to be it.
If the doctor had told him anything… if there had been a DNA test… he wouldn’t be standing there like that. He’d be raging, roaring, storming into the room with eyes like fire.
But here he was. Quiet. Cold. Lost in thought.
I saw my chance.
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I stood up quickly and rushed to him, throwing myself into his chest like a woman clinging to the last hope she had. My tears were real now…. summoned from that deep part of me that had always known how to cry when it counted.
“Damien,” I whispered through my sobs. “Everything is going to be fine. I know it. I feel it in my soul. Jeff will never leave us. We’ll fight for him. Whatever it takes… even if I have to give my life, I will. I swear it.”
For a heartbeat, I rested my face against his shirt and waited for his arms to close around me.
But they never did.
Instead, I felt him slowly, gently unwrap my fingers from around his body…. like peeling something off that didn’t belong.
The rejection was quiet… and brutal.
He said nothing to me.
He walked past and went to Jeff’s bedside, sitting where I had been just moments before. He picked up Jeff’s hand and held it with a tenderness I had never known him to give anyone. It was the kind of love that couldn’t be faked, couldn’t be staged.
“Hey, buddy,” he said softly. “Daddy’s here. You hang on, alright, champion? I promise… I’ll do everything possible to save you. Everything.”
I stood just a few steps behind him, watching him stroke Jeff’s hand with that intense, quiet devotion that used to make me jealous. But now… it made me calculating.
He had shut me out completely. No words. No glance. Just that low murmur meant for Jeff alone, like I wasn’t
even in the room.
Still, I smiled.
He didn’t have to look at me now. He would, eventually. He always came back.
That was when my phone vibrated against my palm, breaking the moment.
I stepped back and glanced at the screen.
My contact had come through.
The message read: “Here’s the number to the old warden. Same man. Good luck.”
My heart skipped. For a second, it was almost disbelief.
After all these years…
I took a slow breath, then forced a sorrowful expression back onto my face. I touched Damien lightly on the
shoulder.
“I need to call my best friend,” I said softly. “She’s been worried sick, we were supposed to attend an
Chapter 25
engagement together. I should let her know what’s going on.”
He didn’t even respond. Just nodded faintly, eyes still locked on Jeff.
Perfect.
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I stepped outside, completely out of the building, and walked until I was alone by the hospital parking lot, hidden behind a large van. I dialed the number, barely waiting between rings.
When the man finally picked up, there was a pause. Then a cautious voice.
“Hello?”
“It’s me,” I said, lowering my voice but letting it carry a tone of familiarity. “I’m surprised you don’t recognize the voice of the woman who helped you get paid ten years of your salary in one month.”
Another pause.
Then, slowly, “…Diana?”
“Bingo.”
He sounded stunned. “I haven’t heard from you in years.”
“I lost your number,” I replied smoothly. “Just got it back now. But I need information. About my sister. Alicia.”
The name hung between us for a while.
There was silence on his end. Then, “You mean the blind girl?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes. The blind girl. Is she still in there? Still as useless and miserable as I left her?”
He hesitated. “Hold on. I’ve been working in a different section lately. Let me check.”
The line went dead.
As I stood there, the air felt too still. My fingers trembled slightly, but I curled them into fists. I had nothing to be afraid of. Alicia had been silenced. Her life had been shredded. And even if by some miracle she was still alive in that cell, blind and broken, she was no threat to me,
I began pacing. The wait made my skin itch.
Then my phone rang.
I snatched it up instantly. “Yes?”
His voice was quiet, almost reluctant. “She was released five years ago.”
I stopped walking.
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Chapter 25
My breath caught. “What?”
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“She’s not in the system anymore. From what I saw, someone powerful pulled strings. Highly connected. Got
her out.”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t.
My mind was already spinning. Five years. Free.
She was out. Somewhere in the world. Breathing. Watching. Planning?
The call ended, but my thoughts didn’t.
I placed a hand to my chest as I recalled the moment I’d banged on that hotel door like a woman possessed…. and the way she had opened it. Calm. Confident. Her face was familiar, but I’d brushed it off. Until now.
“This isn’t a coincidence.”
I whispered the words out loud, my voice low and sharp.
Alicia was Cia Jones.
And she was back.
For revenge?
Of course she was. She’d always been the righteous type, always clinging to her sob story, crying for justice no one cared to give her. But she’d made a mistake returning.
Because now, I wasn’t just the big sister with a plan.
I was a woman who had everything to lose, and would destroy anything that threatened it.
I straightened my shoulders, my voice turning into a hiss, even though my heart was racing.
“Alicia… five years or fifty, it doesn’t matter. Nothing has changed. You were never a match for me. And this time, I’m not just going to ruin your life…”
I narrowed my eyes toward the hospital building.
