Chapter 1 - The Hospital King
Dominic stared at me as if I had suddenly spoken in a completely foreign language.
He let out a sharp, mocking laugh that echoed terribly against the quiet hum of the incubator machines.
"Your grandfather?" Dominic sneered, shaking his head in sheer disbelief.
"You told me your grandparents died when you were a teenager in a tragic car accident."
"I told you my parents died in that crash, Dominic," I corrected him with absolute, icy calm.
"I simply never mentioned the man who actually raised me because he insisted on keeping my identity entirely private."
Natalie rolled her heavily made-up eyes and tightly adjusted the collar of my stolen cashmere coat.
"This is just pathetic, Dominic," she whined, softly rubbing her pregnant belly.
"She is clearly having a mental breakdown from the premature delivery and making up ridiculous, delusional lies."
Before Dominic could agree with his incredibly arrogant mistress, the heavy double doors of the intensive care unit swung violently open.
Six massive men wearing sharp black suits and discreet earpieces marched rapidly into the sterile room.
They immediately formed a protective, imposing wall directly between my fragile babies and my treacherous husband.
A moment later, Alexander Sterling stepped gracefully into the room leaning on his signature silver-handled cane.
My grandfather was an eighty-year-old billionaire titan who practically owned half the medical real estate in the state.
He looked at Dominic with the same cold disgust one might reserve for a squashed cockroach on a pristine floor.
"Audrey, my beautiful girl, I came as fast as my helicopter could fly," my grandfather said, walking gently to my side.
Dominic's face drained of all color as he finally recognized the incredibly famous, ruthless business magnate standing before him.
"Mr. Sterling," Dominic stammered, frantically trying to smooth down his wrinkled suit jacket in a sudden panic.
"I actually own a highly successful medical supply company that actively contracts with your hospital network."
My grandfather did not even bother to look in Dominic's pathetic direction.
He simply snapped his fingers, and the lead security guard immediately grabbed Dominic tightly by his arm.
"Escort this worthless trash and his stolen coat completely off my private property immediately," my grandfather ordered without raising his voice.
Dominic struggled wildly against the massive guards as they forcefully dragged him toward the heavy exit doors.
"You cannot do this to me!" Dominic screamed, his former arrogance completely replaced by utter, humiliating panic.
Natalie shrieked in terror as another guard firmly escorted her out by her expensive designer handbag.
I watched them disappear down the hallway, finally taking my first real breath of fresh air in three agonizing days.
"Thank you, Grandfather," I whispered, reaching a trembling hand out to touch the glass of Liam's incubator.
My grandfather placed a warm, comforting hand gently onto my shaking shoulder.
"I have already instructed my ruthless legal team to utterly destroy his business by morning," my grandfather promised fiercely.
I smiled, feeling a massive wave of pure, vindicated relief wash completely over my exhausted body.
Suddenly, the lead security guard sprinted back into the room holding a highly confidential legal document.
"Mr. Sterling, you need to see this right now," the breathless guard warned, handing over the wrinkled paper.
My grandfather read the document, and his typically composed, stoic expression instantly hardened into pure rage.
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"Dominic didn't just drain your joint bank accounts, Audrey," my grandfather revealed, his voice trembling with furious anger.
"He legally leveraged your hidden family trust as collateral to take out a fifty-million-dollar loan from a known criminal syndicate."
