Chapter 3

8:55 AM. The executive boardroom.

The room smells of expensive cologne and freshly brewed espresso. Dorian stands at the head of the massive mahogany table, projecting a glowing financial chart onto the screen.

He looks entirely in his element. Untouchable.

"With this investment, my legacy is secure," Dorian pitches to the room full of elite executives, his voice oozing with arrogant confidence.

Suddenly, the heavy double doors swing violently open.

Dorian stops dead in his tracks. The red laser pointer shakes uncontrollably in his hand.

"Raina?" he gasps, his eyes wide. He quickly points at the door. "Security, get her out of here!"

I don't even blink. I walk straight past the guards and march directly to the head of the mahogany table.

I slam a thick stack of legal documents onto the polished wood.

"As of 9:00 AM, I am freezing all capital injections," I announce, my voice echoing like a gunshot in the dead-silent room.

Dorian stares at the injunction papers, the color entirely draining from his face.

"Your company is suffocating, Dorian," I tell him coldly. "You are completely bankrupt."

Callum, the lead investment director, calmly stands up from his leather chair. He buttons his suit jacket, looks at Dorian with utter, humiliating pity, and turns his chair toward me.

He gives me a single, respectful nod.

Dorian stumbles backward. "What? No... she was just a stay-at-home mother..."

For a fleeting second, I see absolute, naked terror in his eyes. He has lost his empire.

But then, he stops panicking.

Slowly, a dark, twisted smirk spreads across his face. He leans his hands heavily on the table, looking at me with pure, unadulterated malice.

"You think you won because you cut my funding?" Dorian laughs darkly. "Keep the money, Raina. I already got what I needed from you."

Before I can process his words, the boardroom doors burst open again.

Bennett runs in. His usually perfect suit is disheveled. He is sweating, and his face is completely, terrifyingly pale.

He shoves a sealed medical dossier into my trembling hands.

"We finally broke into Dorian's private clinic server," Bennett gasps, his voice shaking violently.

I rip open the file. My eyes scan the highlighted medical terms.

My stomach plummets into an endless abyss.

Camille has a rare, terminal blood disorder.

Liora is listed as a perfect genetic match.

Dorian leans over the table, whispering so only I can hear the venom in his voice.

"As her sole legal guardian, I signed the medical consent forms months ago."

My vision blurs with a blinding, murderous rage.

I grab a heavy glass water pitcher from the center of the table, entirely ready to smash it across his smiling, arrogant face...

Dorian doesn't flinch. He calmly checks his gold watch.

"The extraction surgery was scheduled for 8:00 PM tonight," he whispers, his eyes gleaming with triumph. "But since you showed up... I had the court order executed early."

Suddenly, my phone vibrates violently against the mahogany table.

I snatch it up.

"Raina!" my contact at the hospital screams through the speaker, her panicked voice completely drowning out the boardroom silence.

"Dorian's private medical team just bypassed our security with a federal judge's order!"

My heart completely stops beating.

"They strapped Liora to a gurney, and they are taking her to the surgical wing right now!"