Chapter <b>212 </b>


    -HUNTER’S POV-


    The phone felt heavy in my hand. Sally’s words echoed in my head like a broken record. “Master Hunter<b>… </b><b>It’s </b>Miss Celine. She’s at the hospital. It’s bad. Very bad.”


    My chest squeezed tight. I couldn’t breathe.


    “What’s wrong with you?” My Mother’s sharp voice cut through the fog. She sat on my office couch, watching me with cold eyes. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”


    I grabbed my car keys from the desk. They slipped through my fingers and ttered to the floor. My hands were shaking.


    ‘Celine.‘ Was she still alive? Please let her be alive. For the first time in years, I prayed.


    “Hunter!” my Mother snapped. “Answer me!”


    I turned at the door. My voice came out t and cold. “Get out of my office. I want you gone by the end of the day.”


    Then I was running. The hallway blurred past me. Vincent stepped out of the elevator as I rushed by.


    “Hunter? What the hell….” I didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. My mind was spinning with terrible thoughts.


    ‘What happened to her? Who hurt her? Who dared touch my wife?‘ I made it to the parking lot and fumbled with my car door. My hands wouldn’t work right.


    The keys kept slipping.


    A strong hand grabbed my arm. Vincent. His face was serious now. No jokes. No smiles. “I’m driving.”


    I wanted to argue. But my hands were shaking too hard to hold the steering wheel. I threw him the keys. The drive felt endless. I stared out the window, my mind racing through all the things Celine and I hadn’t done yet.


    The honeymoon we never took. The dream wedding I never gave her. The quiet mornings we’d nned. Watching our children grow up together.


    No. She couldn’t die. Not before we had all of it.


    “Hold on,” I whispered to the ss. “Please hold on for me.”


    Vincent said nothing. He just drove faster.


    Hospital lights hit me like a p when we arrived. I jumped out before Vincent could park. I ran through the sliding doors, pushing past people.


    Maybe they recognized me. Maybe cameras shed. I didn’t care. Sally paced outside the emergency room. Her face was white. Her hands twisted together.


    I forced myself to walk slower even though my legs wanted to run. “Where is she? Where’s my wife<b>?</b><b>” </b>


    Sally turned. Tears filled her eyes. “She’s… she’s still in surgery.”


    My throat burned. “What happened? She was fine this morning. How did this happen?”


    Sally’s voice shook. “I came back from the grocery store and found her. She was lying in blood near the staircase.”


    The words hit me like shots. My Celine. Bleeding and alone.


    “Where was Ana? The other staff? Where were they?”


    “They said they were working outside. They didn’t hear anything.” Lies. Everything about it felt wrong.


    “So how exactly did she fall down the stairs?” Sally’s eyes filled with more tears. She didn’t answer.


    Vincent walked up behind me. “What’s going on?”


    Before I could speak, the emergency room doors opened. Doctor Lyon stepped out. He looked tired. His smile was weak and professional. <fn2434> The source of th?s content is find{n}ovel</fn2434>


    I grabbed his white coat. “Tell me. How is she? How is my wife?”


    900


    The doctor took a breath. “She’s very lucky. If you hadn’t brought her in when you did, she would have died.”


    My knees almost gave out. Vincent caught my arm. “Thank God,” I breathed. But the doctor’s face changed. His


    went dark.


    eyes


    Ice filled my chest. “The baby?”


    The pause told me everything. His voice was gentle. “I’m sorry. She lost the baby. The fall caused too much. damage.”


    The words shattered something inside me. I stood there, unable to move or think. My daughter. Our little girl. Gone.


    “Can I see her?” My voice sounded far away.


    “Not yet. She was hysterical when she arrived. We had to sedate her.” I nodded but felt like I was floating outside my own body.


    Forty–five minutester, I sat beside her hospital bed. Machines beeped around us. Her face was pale as the sheets. Even in sleep, her eyebrows were pulled together with pain.


    She looked so fragile. Like she might break if I touched her. My chest ached. This wasn’t the life I wanted for her. Not pain. Not loss.


    “I’m sorry.” I whispered, touching her hand. “This isn’t what I wanted for us. I promise I’ll do better.” Exhaustion pulled me under. When I woke up, she was calling my name.


    “Hunter?”


    I sat up fast. “Celine.”


    I pulled her into my arms, holding her tight. “Thank you for staying. Thank you for not leaving me.”


    She looked around the room with confused eyes. Then her hand went to her stomach. Her eyes went wide.


    “What happened?” Her voice was thin and scared.


    I swallowed hard. “Sally found you at the bottom of the stairs. You fell.” She tried to sit up and groaned with pain. I helped her lie back down.


    “The baby?” she whispered.


    My throat closed up.


    “Hunter.” Her voice was stronger now. “Tell me about the baby.”


    I couldn’t lie to her. “The fall was too severe. We lost her.” Her face went nk. Then sheughed, but it sounded broken.


    “You’re lying. This is some sick joke.”


    I reached for her hand. “Celine….” She pulled away from me. Her arms wrapped around her body like she was trying to hold herself together.


    The rejection hurt worse than a knife. But I kept my voice steady. “You being alive is what matters most.”


    Her head snapped toward me. Her eyes burned with tears and rage. “How can you say that? She was our baby, Hunter! Our little girl!”


    Her voice cracked. She started sobbing. “This is your fault. All of it. If you had kept Mia away from us, our daughter would still be alive.”


    Her words broke me. But then something clicked. Mia’s name.


    I went cold. “What did you say?”


    She cried harder, clutching her stomach. “Your precious Mia pushed me down the stairs. She killed our baby!”


    The world went red around the edges. My hands clenched into fists. “She’s always around us. Always watching. And I’ve lost everything because I chose to love you!”


    Her sobs filled the room. I couldn’t stay there. Couldn’t listen to her pain without doing something about it. I stumbled into the hallway. The bright lights hurt my eyes.


    My legs felt heavy, but rage carried me forward.


    Vincent saw meing. He grabbed my arm. “Hunter, where are you going? You look like you want to kill someone.”


    <b>I </b>yanked free. “Don’t try to stop me.”


    My footsteps echoed as I walked toward the exit. My vision was red. My blood was on fire. Mia ckwood had murdered my child.


    I was going to destroy her life piece by piece. The elevator doors closed behind me. I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I knew by heart.


    “Derek,” I said when he answered. “I need you to find Mia ckwood. Now.”


    “Boss? What’s wrong?”


    “Find her. Bring her to the warehouse on Fifth Street. And Derek?”


    “Yeah, boss?”


    “Make sure no one sees you do it.”