Chapter 3 Chapter 3

I woke up to a bucket of ice-cold water dumped over me, the chill biting into my bones.

Natalie's face loomed above me, twisted with disgust.

"Quit faking it," she snapped, glaring down. "You know I'm announcing Lucian and the heir tomorrow, and you still pull this stunt, dragging yourself to another city for 'treatment.' What, you want everyone to think Lucian's bullying you?"

Lucian stood behind her, cradling his pup, putting on a pitiful, innocent act.

"Mark, I get that you hate me. Fine, take it out on me. But why sic Vivienne on me to steal my son?"

"That assistant they dragged out was screaming about Vivienne rushing off to file papers, trying to make you the heir's dad, saying I'm not fit to raise him..."

I opened my mouth, but my throat was too raw to form words. I shook my head, trembling, and choked out,

"I... didn't. Natalie, please, get the healers back. The pups... they're not gonna make it..."

"You're lying again!" Natalie's face twisted with annoyance. "My mom bolted from the hospital with a lawyer working overtime-don't tell me you didn't put her up to it! You think stealing Lucian's pup will make you the heir's dad?"

"Your pups were born just fine, weren't they? What's your problem? Using their lives to scam your way to the top-that's low, even for you."

Pain seared through me, my blood long since crusted over, sticking to my skin and reeking of iron.

Lucian gagged, covering his mouth, all fake tears and whining. "Mark, you know I can't stand the smell of blood. You won't even clean up-are you trying to make me pass out on purpose?"

"Look at yourself!" Natalie sneered. "You're a mess, stinking like a Natalietic. You're an embarrassment!"

She waved a hand, and her bodyguards doused me with bucket after bucket of freezing water until I was pale, shaking, and hypothermic. Only then did she tell them to stop.

But Lucian kept up his sob story.

"Mark, I'm begging you, don't tear me and my son apart... If you're dead set on taking him, I'll just jump out that window right now!"

He made a big show of leaning toward the window. Natalie rushed to pull him back, hugging him tight.

Her patience snapped. She spun around, kicking my hand away from Lucian's pant leg, and leaned in, her voice a venomous hiss.

"You think you can manipulate my mom into making you the heir's dad, stealing what belongs to Lucian and his pup? I've already locked down the family estate-no matter what you scheme, it's not happening!"

"And you-I've warned you a million times not to mess with Lucian or his pup, but you never listen! Guess I'll have to teach you a lesson you won't forget."

She whirled on her bodyguards, her voice cold as steel.

"He's pushed Lucian to the edge, threatening to jump. Make him pay. Go pull his dad's oxygen tube and toss him out a window!"

"Natalie!" I screamed, my voice shredding. "You've lost your mind! That's my dad! He saved your life!"

"So what?" Natalie laughed bitterly. "He pulled every string to save me so you could be bound to a rich she-wolf, so your pups could be the future of the Thorne empire. He used that 'hero' card to guilt me into becoming bound to you. Well, you got your fancy life, and I carried your pups. But your brats didn't beat Lucian's son to the finish line. I've paid my debt-I don't owe you or your dad a damn thing!"

"Do it!"

I lunged at the bodyguards, desperate to stop them, but they slammed me to the ground, ripping my clothes to shreds.

The dried blood on my body tore open, gushing like a broken dam, pooling red across the floor.

I screamed, my throat raw, curling into a ball as pain consumed me.

Natalie stepped forward to drag me up, but then she froze. Her eyes locked on my mangled, bloodied skin, exposed from the beating, and a crumpled ICU notice for the babies that had fallen from my torn clothes.

Her face went white.

She dropped to her knees, pulling me into her arms, and spun on Lucian and the bodyguards, her voice sharp with panic.

"What the hell happened?! I told you to bring him to the press conference, that's it! Who beat him to a pulp like this?"

"And what's this notice? Lucian, you said you hired a nanny to take care of those pups, that they were fine!"

Lucian's face twitched, but he recovered fast, his eyes welling up as he pulled out his phone. "I swear, I don't know! The pups are totally okay!"

"I knew Mark would try to frame me, so I had the nanny record a video of them."

He handed over the phone. The screen showed a grainy video of a clearly older baby-not mine. The fakery was painfully obvious.

The bodyguards chimed in, backing him up like loyal dogs. "We'd never touch Mark! He's probably faking it, using special effects makeup to trick you, scared you'll blame him for what he did to those models."