Chapter 2

The pungent smell of antiseptic flooded Dania's nose as she forced her heavy eyelids open in the emergency room, letting out a low groan as the ceiling spun violently above her.

Sitting beside the bed, Dr. Kasper Jones immediately set down his medical chart, his warm blue-gray eyes filled with anger and heartache.

"You're finally awake. You have a mild concussion, and with your impaired blood clotting, that gash on your head almost killed you."

Dania struggled to prop herself up on her elbows, but Kasper quickly pressed a gentle, firm hand against her shoulder to keep her flat.

A muted news ticker rolled across the hospital TV mounted on the wall. Snippets about Kane Enterprises' looming loan‑call rattled in the background. She had known for weeks her father Winston had been burning himself out: constant splitting headaches, uncontrolled high blood pressure, yet he brushed off every doctor's warning, burying himself in company crisis.

She reached up and gripped his wrist tightly, her eyes wide with desperate pleading.

"Kasper, help me destroy that AML diagnosis report completely. Nobody can ever find out about it."

Kasper frowned deeply, pushing his gold-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose. As a top hematologist at the hospital and her closest friend for ten years, he knew exactly what she was facing.

"Have you lost your mind, Dania? You need to be admitted for chemotherapy right now! Emiliano is your husband—he has a right to know the truth!"

A bitter laugh escaped Dania's pale lips as tears finally spilled down her cheeks.

"He only cares about keeping Bailee alive. If he finds out I'm sick, he'll just think I'm faking it to get out of donating my bone marrow."

Looking at her broken expression, Kasper laced his fingers tightly together, torn between his medical oath and his decade-long unspoken love for her.

Finally, he let out a defeated sigh and pulled an encrypted flash drive from his white coat pocket, pressing it into her palm.

"All your original blood work is on here. I already wiped your records from the hospital's main server."

Dania closed her fingers tightly around the drive, yanked the IV needle straight out of the back of her hand, and swung her legs off the bed despite Kasper's protests. Putting on her bloodstained coat along with a mask and cap, she slipped out through the hospital's underground service tunnel, evading the Lester family bodyguards.

An hour later, a yellow cab dropped Dania off in front of the massive Lester estate on Long Island.

She pushed open the heavy oak front doors and walked through the empty, echoing foyer, the cold luxury mocking her three years of marriage. Climbing the stairs to the second-floor study, she unlocked the wall safe, pulled out a pre-signed divorce agreement, and slapped it down on the mahogany desk.

The roar of a sports car engine echoed from the driveway. Minutes later, Emiliano strode into the study carrying the chill of the night air and the scent of cigar smoke.

His gaze swept over the white gauze taped to Dania's forehead without a trace of guilt, leaving only cold scrutiny.

Dania slid the papers across the desk toward him, her voice hoarse but steady.

"Sign it. I'm walking away with nothing."

Emiliano's dark gray pupils shrank violently as his eyes landed on the words Divorce Agreement, the air in the room dropping to freezing point. He snatched the documents off the desk, ripped them to shreds right in front of her face, and threw the paper scraps at her like snow.

"Trying to use a divorce to escape the transplant? You're way too naive, Dania."

He stalked forward with a cold sneer, backing her up until her lower back hit the edge of the desk. Dania braced her hands behind her and tilted her chin up, refusing to cower.

"I don't owe Bailee a damn thing, and you have no right to force me!"

Emiliano grabbed her chin in a vise-like grip, forcing her to look straight into his eyes.

"As long as you carry the title of Mrs. Lester, your life and your body belong to me."

He flung her face aside in disgust, walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, and lit a cigar.

"At eight o'clock tomorrow morning, my private medical team will come straight to the estate to extract your marrow right here."

Shaking from head to toe, Dania snatched the heavy crystal ashtray off the desk and hurled it at the floor by his feet, shattering glass everywhere.

"You're a lunatic! I will never let you do this!"

She screamed at the top of her lungs and bolted for the study door. Moving with terrifying speed, Emiliano crossed the room in two strides, tangled his hand in her long hair, and yanked her backward.

Dania cried out as her scalp burned with pain, crashing backward against his hard chest. Wrapping one arm around her thin waist, he hoisted her effortlessly over his shoulder.

She kicked and pounded her fists against his back, only making his grip tighten like an iron band. Out in the hallway, several housemaids poked their heads out of the service doors, then quickly ducked back inside and locked their doors when Emiliano shot them a murderous glare.

He carried her down the grand corridor, kicked open the heavy double doors of the master bedroom, and walked into the pitch-black room. Without a shred of gentleness, Emiliano threw her onto the center of the king-size bed.

As the mattress bounced beneath her, he ripped off his silk tie, tossed it onto the carpet, and came down on top of her, trapping her completely beneath his heavy frame.