Chapter 12 - The Early Coming
The violence in the ballroom triggered the storm.
The stress of the confrontation, the sudden spike in my adrenaline, and the sheer weight of the three babies finally broke the dam. As Volkov and Kuroda retreated under the suppressive fire of Adrian's loyal guards, a sudden, gushing warmth soaked through the emerald silk of my gown.
I collapsed back into the velvet chair, a scream finally ripping from my throat as a pain unlike anything I had ever felt tore through my lower back.
"Adrian!" I cried out, my hands flying to my stomach. "It's time. They're coming right now."
The ballroom descended into an entirely different kind of chaos. Adrian didn't look at the dead body on the table or the retreat of his enemies. He dropped his weapon, scooping me up into his arms with a look of pure, unadulterated panic on his hard face.
"Dr. Evans! Get the theater ready!" Adrian shouted, his voice echoing down the hallway as he carried me toward the medical wing.
My mother was already there, her hands scrubbed clean, her face pale but set in a look of absolute determination. The nurses rushed around us, cutting away the ruined silk gown and connecting the monitors.
The machines were screaming. The heart rates of the triplets were spiking, their rhythms overlapping into a chaotic, terrifying drumbeat.
"The contractions are too close together," Dr. Evans said, his forehead beaded with sweat as he checked my dilation. "The umbilical cords are tangling, Adrian. We can't do a natural birth. We have to perform an emergency C-section right now, or we lose all three of them to oxygen deprivation."
"Do it," Adrian ordered, his hand gripping mine so hard my knuckles turned white. He didn't leave the room. He refused to wear the sterile mask. He stood over my head, his gray eyes locked onto mine as the doctors prepared the scalpel.
"Vivien, look at me," Adrian commanded, his voice shaking slightly. "Don't look at the lights. Don't listen to the machines. Just look at me. I'm right here. I'm not letting you go."
"The sequence..." I choked out, my vision blurring as the anesthesia began to pump into my IV line. "Mom... protect the babies..."
"I have them, Vivien," my mother's voice came from the foot of the table, fierce and steady. "The Blackwood line ends its curse tonight."
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The cold steel of the blade touched my skin, and the world faded into a haze of white light and the sound of my own failing heartbeat.
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