The Marshal Unleashed at Midnight

Chapter 004

"Camille, please, have mercy. Ask your mother to operate on Gordon!"

Lorraine sobbed, her hand clawing at Natalie's sleeve. "Natalie, say something, quick!"

The whole mess traced back to the department head election, where Deborah and Gordon had been rival candidates. They had never gotten along, trading barbs and maneuvering against each other for years, and the wedding scandal had only widened the rift. By now the Sinclair family and the Ashford family were practically at war. Deborah flatly refused to touch Gordon's case, claiming she had surgery scheduled, though everyone knew what that excuse meant.

Gordon's condition could not wait. A transfer to another hospital was out of the question given the time it would cost. With no other option, the Sinclair women had swallowed their pride and come to beg the one other thoracic surgery expert in reach, the very woman who despised their family, to save his life.

"Camille, this is my fault. None of it has anything to do with my father."

Natalie lifted her head to look at Camille, her voice trembling. "Hate me, curse me, do whatever you want to me. But my father's life is hanging by a thread. Please, let your mother save him."

"Oh, how interesting." Camille's lips curled into a cold smile. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of a familiar figure approaching, and her expression turned even more venomous. "Weren't you so high and mighty before? Now you're the one on your knees begging me?" She tilted her chin toward the approaching man. "Your brand new husband, Adrian, is supposed to be so impressive, isn't he? If he's here, why don't you ask him to save your father?"

"Natalie, get up. The floor's cold."

Adrian crossed the crowd without a flicker of expression and pulled Natalie up by the arm.

"So you're the ex-con everyone's been talking about, the useless piece of trash!"

The instant Lorraine spotted Adrian, she scrambled up and shoved him away from her daughter. "What did our family ever do to you? Why can't you leave my daughter alone? Her reputation is ruined, my husband is on an operating table, and you still won't let go. Do you want to see our whole family destroyed?"

"Oh, this is rich. Quite the performance."

Camille watched with open delight, then cleared her throat. "All right, enough shouting. If you want my mother to operate, it's not impossible. Have Adrian hand over fifty thousand dollars. Then the two of you get on your knees and apologize. Admit out loud that he's a worthless, spineless simp and she's a filthy little tramp. Then slap yourselves until I'm satisfied, and I'll consider showing mercy."

Natalie's whole body jerked as if struck. Fury and humiliation welled up in her eyes.

Camille wanted to grind what little dignity she and Adrian had left into the floor, in front of everyone.

But her father was still unconscious on an operating table in this building, and her resolve wavered.

"Out of respect for the five years we had, I held back. I didn't want to be too cruel."

Adrian let out a long, weary sigh. "But you've crossed the line one too many times, Camille. You've pushed this too far, and there's a price for that."

He turned to Natalie, his voice softening. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to your father, and I'll cure him myself."

Camille stared at him as though he'd told the funniest joke, then curled her lips into a sneer. "You're a broke, useless nobody, yet you have the nerve to say that with a straight face. Natalie, I should thank you, because trash like you belongs with garbage like him, and you two are a perfect match!" She threw her head back and laughed.

The crack of a slap cut her laughter off mid-breath.

Every head turned. Camille staggered as Adrian's palm cracked across her face, and crumpled to the floor. Half her face was already swelling, and the crowd forgot how to breathe.

Striking someone now, with a man's life on the line down the hall, seemed almost suicidal. Was he trying to get Gordon killed out of spite?

"It seems you didn't take what I said this morning to heart."

Adrian's words came slow and deliberate, each one landing like a stone. "Anyone who wants to bully Natalie has to go through me first."

Natalie stood frozen under her relatives' accusing stares, her fingers twisting into her sleeve.

She understood, with sick certainty, that what Adrian had just done could cost her father his life. She didn't believe for a second that he had the skill to treat a heart attack. And yet, despite the resentment curdling in her chest, she couldn't bring herself to scream at him. The words would not come.

"Fine. Just fine!"

Camille spat out a mouthful of blood, pressed a hand to her ruined cheek, and glared with pure venom. "You'd all better remember this. If Gordon dies today, it isn't the Ashford family who killed him. It's your precious son-in-law, Adrian."

With that, she turned and walked away without looking back.

"What... what are we supposed to do now?"

Lorraine's legs gave out. She sank to the floor and dissolved into broken sobs.

Adrian was about to speak when the phone in his pocket buzzed.

He glanced down at his phone. A message from Tiger, saying the delivery had arrived downstairs, and asking where he was.

"Meet me at the operating room in the ER."

Adrian typed the reply without slowing his stride and walked straight through the crowd, leaving silence in his wake.

Tears blurred Natalie's eyes as she watched him go. Her lips parted, but she didn't call out.

She no longer held any hope that this man could save her father.

Someone finally noticed Adrian was gone.

"He left? When did he leave?" Uncle Bernard, her father's eldest brother, went red with fury. "That bastard. He's going to get Gordon killed!"

Uncle Walter turned to Natalie with a heavy sigh. "Natalie, I'm not trying to lecture you, but how did you end up tangled up with a man like that? In skill, in wealth, what does Adrian have that could ever compare to Julian? I'm truly disappointed in you." 

The relatives talked over one another, cursing Adrian and scolding Natalie in the same breath. Underneath ran a shared dread: if this cost the Sinclair family its chance at marrying into the Roarke family, the loss would be staggering.

"At this point, there's only one option left."

Uncle Bernard clapped his hands together as the thought struck him. "Natalie. Call Mr. Roarke. Apologize, make it right with him. If he's willing to step in and help, with the Roarke family's connections, he'll find a way to save your father."

"Exactly right," Lorraine said, her eyes lighting up through her tears. "Your father always said Julian could make him department head, which means he must have friends among the hospital's top people! Natalie, call him now. It's the only way left."

The moment she heard Julian's name, something in Natalie recoiled on instinct. If she'd had any choice in the matter, she would have cut this so-called fiance loose without a second thought.

But right now, she had no choice at all.

"Fine. I'll call him."

She pulled out her phone with shaking hands and dialed. "Julian, it's Natalie. I need to ask you for a favor."

On the other end of the line, Julian's eyebrows shot up in genuine surprise. Natalie had always kept him at arm's length, cool and distant no matter how he tried. For her to call him first, to ask him for something, was almost unheard of.

"Oh? Tell me what's going on."

His mind was already racing. Heaven had just dropped an opportunity in his lap, and there was no way he'd let it pass without squeezing something out of it.

"My father had a heart attack and he's unconscious in the ER at Harborcrest Medical Center," Natalie said. "Do you know any of the hospital's senior doctors? Someone who can perform cardiology surgery?"

"A cardiology specialist, hm." Julian drew the pause out. "What a coincidence. Dr. Alistair Finch, the hospital's former director, is one of the leading names in that field. The Roarke family goes back with him. Of course, a man like that is extremely busy. Getting him out of retirement won't be simple."

"Whatever you need, just say it." Natalie caught the undertone beneath his words immediately, and she ground her teeth before forcing the question out.

"No need to sound so tense. It's just that this will take a fair amount of effort on my part, that's all." Julian gave a low chuckle. "Although, if you're willing to come by tonight, have a drink with me, play a few little games to help me unwind, I suppose it wouldn't be any trouble at all."