“Get the fuck away from her!”
Luther’s voice echoed in the alley. Behind him, an older man stepped out of the passenger side with a leather bag swinging from his fingers, like a prop he’d carried a thousand times before. “How dare you put your filthy hands on my girlfriend?” Luther yelled at Rhys again. The black smoke had ceased now. The healing process had been interrupted by the barking of this rabid man. Rhys growled and stepped back. “Luther! Where the hell have you been? I called you eleven times!” Sera asked him, wiping tears from her eyes. “Forgive me, Mrs Longwater. I was getting Anna the best doctor money can buy.” He quickly took Sera’s hand and kissed it. Then, he jabbed a finger back toward the man in the coat. “Dr. Whitfield flew in from Geneva. He has over forty years experience as a doctor. No one is more equipped to take care of Anna like him.” Sera gazed at the man. Her fears had suddenly calmed a bit, because of his reputation. Luther’s eyes flashed to Rhys. “And I come back to find some gutter rat with his hands on her chest!” “He was trying to help Anna,” Sera chipped in. “Is he a doctor?” Dr Whitfield asked. “No. But—“ “Quacks. These criminals are a plague to the medical world. He’s obviously one.” Dr Whitfield cut Sera off, gazing at Rhys’s outfit. “You picked the wrong family to scam. I will have you thrown so far back into a cell they’ll forget your name.” Luther yelled at Rhys. “She has four minutes now,” Rhys said. The words landed like a slap. Sera’s breath caught somewhere in her throat. Her heart started racing again. Dr. Whitfield set his bag down without urgency, crouched, checked Anna’s pulse, and peeled back an eyelid with two fingers. Then he rose, smoothing his coat, wearing a bright smile on his face. “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s simply exhaustion,” he announced. “The body shutting itself down to survive its own owner. Suspended animation. She’ll open her eyes in a few hours and ask why everyone looks like they’ve seen a ghost. Quite rare, but I’ve seen this before. Many times” Dr Whitfield smiled again. Sera's eyes darted between him and Anna, who still looked pale and blue. “She won’t wake up.” Rhys simply stated. All eyes fell on him. “This isn’t suspended animation. Her energy’s blocked. This is Hollow Sleep. She will die if nothing’s done.” He added. Dr Whitmore blinked. Did this poverty stricken street fellow just challenge him? Whitfield chuckled. “Hollow Sleep?” He said the words like they’d dirtied his mouth. “There is no such condition in any medical journal on this earth. I don’t know what circus you crawled out of, boy, but this…” he swept a hand at Rhys, head to boots, “…is a scam. Preying on a terrified mother in a back alley. It’s pathetic, even for a criminal.” Sera’s eyes darted between the two men. From Dr Whitfield to Rhys. She didn’t know what to believe anymore. “Please, Mrs Longwater.” Luther slid an arm around her like a leash. “Listen to the actual doctor. Not some street trash who looks like a homeless urchin.” “I won’t make this offer again, Ma’am. Your daughter’s life is in your hands.” Rhys stated with the finality of a man who had already decided. Dr Whitfield straightened his cuffs. “Tell you what. Since you’re so certain. Wake her up, and I’ll kneel in this alley myself and call you Master in front of everyone here. But if you fail…” His smile twisted into something darker, “…I’ll have these men break every finger you touched her with, and then I’ll have you arrested where you’d rot in jail for life.” The guards fanned out at the mouth of the alley without being told. They thought Rhys would try to run. “Deal. But you won’t just kneel. You’ll slap yourself. Hard. In front of everyone standing here.” Rhys added. Whitfield didn’t hesitate. “Fine,” he said, already savoring it, since none of it will be happening anyway. Rhys turned back to the car, where Anna’s lips had gone from blue to something closer to grey. He checked his watch. “Fuck. You wasted her time. Now she has a minute until it starts!” Rhys gritted his teeth. Luther scoffed. “Until what starts?” “The convulsions.” Rhys replied, already dashing to the car. “Ha! There are no bloody convulsions—“ Crack! Anna’s spine suddenly seized. Her muscles tensed. And before the glaring eyes of the shocked crowd, her body jerked violently!Latest Chapter
Chapter 12
The doctor shoved past Gloria with a crash cart trailing behind him, another nurse hot on her heels.“Clear the room! Everyone out, now!” The doctor called out, as the team plugged monitors and set up equipment.“That’s my mother! I’m not going anywhere.” Luke barked, refusing to budge.“Sir, I need you step out and let me do my job. Else she dies. Do you want that?” The doctor asked. The words landed like a slap. Luke stumbled back in defeat. By then, Gloria was already sobbing profusely. Luke grabbed her, taking her along with him as they attempted to leave the room. But Rhys didn’t move.The doctor turned on him next, eyes narrowing at the man standing calm in the middle of the chaos.“Leave sir!”“No.”The doctor frowned. Both Luke and Gloria stopped on their steps.“Excuse me?” The doctor scoffed. “You heard me. I’m not leaving her.” Rhys’s voice didn’t rise. “Somebody call security!” the doctor barked. “We’ve got a family member interfering with a code blue!”Luke quickly
Chapter 11
Text from Gloria:[Rhys. It’s Mom. Doctors say she doesn’t have long. Please come now!]Every sound in the boutique dropped.Rhys didn’t explain. He didn’t apologize.He just turned and walked straight out of the boutique, leaving Anna standing there, with her hand still halfway extended toward a man who was already gone.By the time Rhys reached the central hospital, it was already midday. The receptionist barely glanced up from her computer when he burst through the sliding doors. “Sir, visiting hours are over…”She froze when she saw him. Chiseled, a body that looked divine, muscles hugging his outfit. Her lips parted a bit as she stared at him. “Miriam Cole. What room is she?” He asked her amidst her trance.The receptionist blinked, startled by the force of him, and it took her a second longer than it should have to actually process the name. Her eyes crawled up from his chest and landed properly on his face for the first time. She cleared her throat, sitting up a little
Chapter 10
“How dare you, call my savior, a thief?”The words hung in the air longer than the slap did. Alisha’s hand trembled against her own jaw, blood welling at the corner of her lips.“You hit me.” She said to Anna like she still didn’t believe it. Rhys kept smiling, watching the drama with amusement. “My fiancée will not be happy about this!” Alisha retorted.“I don’t see a fiancée here. I only see a woman who let her own husband rot in a cell for a crime her family committed, then traded him for a fatter bank account the second he needed her.” Anna said to her. Alisha’s heart skipped a beat. “Oh yes. I heard all about your scandal. And how shameless you’ve been!” Anna added. She briefly fixed her gaze on Rhys. There was something in her eyes. It was not gratitude anymore. It was something closer to reverence, like she couldn’t even fathom what he had gone through.And survived.She then turned her attention back to Alisha.“You don’t get to stand in my store,and call the man who to
Chapter 9
Next morning, a knock hit the door.Rhys opened to find Luther leaning against the frame, arms crossed. He wore a frown on his face.“Sleep well, gutter rat?” Luther’s eyes swept the guest room like it disgusted him just by hosting Rhys’s body. “Enjoy the sheets while they last. Silk’s wasted on someone like you.” He added.Rhys sighed.“Is there a point to this, or did you just miss me?” Luther’s face darknened immediately. He straightened himself.“The point is that you’re a stray Sera dragged in off the street because she felt sorry for you, and strays that overstay their welcome get put down. So here’s some free advice, fuckface… Luther stepped closer.“Take the money. Keep your head low. Don’t get comfortable, and don’t get ‘ideas’ about anyone in this family, especially not Anna. ” His eyes cut deliberately toward the hallway. “You understand me? Or has poverty rotted your brain already?”“Your foolishness didn’t stop me from saving her last night. It won’t stop me now either
Chapter 8
The car ride back was quiet enough to hear Anna’s breathing. She sat wrapped in a blanket across from Rhys, and every few minutes her eyes found his face. Then she’d coyly look away.Rhys caught every glance. He said nothing. The Longwater estate came into view quickly. The cars drove inside, and parked before the manor.The doors opened. Everyone stepped down and approached the stairs.The head maid, a woman in black, stood waiting at the top of the steps, spine straight as a blade, Her eyes swept the group and landed on Rhys and stopped there for a moment, curling with a specific disgust.“Welcome home, Mrs. Longwater. Mr Longwater has been asking for you all night.”“I imagine he has.” Sera didn’t slow down. “I have news of my own for him.”The maid’s gaze crawled back to Rhys, gazing at him top to bottom, taking in the prison clothes and the dirt still on his knees.“And… this?” She asked. “This, is Rhys. And he gets a room and a hot meal. Tonight.” Sera replied, following her
Chapter 7
Anna’s spine cracked again, and this time her whole body arched off the seat.Rhys moved before anyone could stop him.He shoved past Luther, dropped to one knee beside the car, and clamped both hands against her convulsing chest. The black smoke surged instantly, thicker now, angrier, wrapping around his wrists like a tornado.“What are you doing?! Get off her!” Luther lunged, but one of the guards caught his arm.Luther shot the guard a glare.“How dare you? Unhand me!”“She’s seizing, sir, maybe we can just—““Maybe nothing! He’s fucking killing her!”Luther dragged his arm off the hand.Sera pressed both hands over her mouth, sobbing into her palms, watching her daughter’s body twist and buck.Dr. Whitfield had gone very still.His earlier arrogance had drained clean out of his face. He’d seen exhaustion. He’d seen shock, seizures, cardiac events. He had never seen a man’s palm glow black.“That’s not normal. That’s not… medicine,” Whitfield mumbled to himself. Legs frozen in pl
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