Chapter 4 - A Premature Storm
The master bedroom of the Kane mansion had always felt like a museum to me—cold, vast, and filled with priceless antiques that looked down on my presence. But tonight, it became a battlefield.
Roman carried me up the grand staircase himself, ignoring the blood and rain ruining his pristine floors. He kicked the bedroom doors open, gently laying me down on the Egyptian cotton sheets.
“Get the heat on! Maximize it!” Roman roared at the servants who were hovering by the doorway. “Bring every blanket in this house! Now!”
I lay there, shivering violently, my teeth clicking together so hard I thought they would break. The doctor, Dr. Evans, quickly set up his equipment, his face grim.
“The baby’s heart rate is spiking,” Dr. Evans said, hooking a portable monitor to my swollen belly. The fast, erratic thump-thump-thump of my daughter’s heartbeat filled the room, sounding like a trapped bird. “Bianca, I need you to breathe. The hypothermia is restricting blood flow to the placenta.”
Roman sat on the edge of the bed, grabbing my hand. His palms were warm, rough, and steady. For a man who ran a multi-billion-dollar criminal empire with an iron fist, his eyes were filled with absolute terror.
“I’m right here, Bella,” he whispered, using the nickname he only used when we were completely alone. He kissed my knuckles, his lips brushing against my cold skin. “You’re safe. Nobody can touch you now.”
“My hair, Roman...” I cried, tears finally breaking free, mixing with the dried rain on my cheeks. I reached up, my hand brushing against the jagged, painfully short patches of hair Vivienne’s women had left behind. “She made me look like... like a monster.”
Roman’s eyes softened, a deep, painful sorrow washing over his features. He reached up, gently cupping my shaved head with both of his massive hands. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t look away.
“You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “Your hair will grow back. But the people who did this to you? They will never recover. I swear it to you on my life.”
Suddenly, another contraction slammed into me, worse than the last. I screamed, arching my back as the pain threatened to rip me in half.
“She’s crowning!” Dr. Evans yelled, throwing off the blankets. “Roman, hold her down! She’s too weak from the cold, she needs to push now or we lose the baby!”
Outside, the storm howled against the bulletproof glass windows, as if Vivienne’s anger was trying to break back into the room. Downstairs, I could hear the faint sounds of shouting and furniture breaking. Roman’s loyalists were purging the mansion, rounding up everyone who had stood by and watched me bleed.
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“Push, Bianca! Push!” Roman pleaded, his calm facade completely cracking. He pressed his forehead against mine, his tears falling onto my face. “Don’t leave me. Bring our girl into the world.”
I screamed, channeling every ounce of rage, humiliation, and love I had into one final, desperate push.
