Chapter 2 - The Socialite's NightmareVictoria Vance did not do hospital visits. She did charity galas, exclusive fundraisers, and VIP lounges. Seeing her standing in a public county hospital corridor with hair slightly out of place was like watching a rare, fragile artifact shatter.

Her gaze darted from Elias’s pale, sweat-slicked face to my badge—Dr. Adelaide Brooks, Chief Resident—and finally locked onto the prominent swell of my stomach beneath my crisp blue scrubs.

"Elias..." Victoria’s voice dropped an octave, dripping with sudden, ice-cold suspicion. "What is she looking at? Why is she... why does she look like that?"

Elias swallowed hard, his throat bobbing as he tried to find words. For all his multi-million-dollar deal-making eloquence, he was completely paralyzed.

"Victoria," Elias began, his hand coming up to massage his temples in a desperate bid to stave off a migraine. "Not now. Sophie just broke her arm, and—"

"Don't you dare brush past this!" Victoria snapped, her aristocratic composure cracking down the middle. She stepped forward, her eyes narrowing as she glared at me with undisguised venom. "Is that... are you pregnant? Whose is that? Elias, tell me right now that this isn't what it looks like!"

I crossed my arms, leaning back slightly against the nurses' counter, enjoying the sudden, delicious shift in power. The hunter had become the hunted.

"If you're asking whether the father is an absentee coward who runs away when life gets messy," I said smoothly, letting my eyes flick pointedly toward Elias, "then yes, Victoria. You share remarkably similar taste in men."

Victoria gasped, stepping back as if I had physically struck her. "You—you're that charity case doctor he used to date before we got together! The little nobody from the ER!"

"Watch your tone," I whispered, the temperature in the room dropping ten degrees. The authority in my voice wasn't just professional; it was primal. "You are standing in my hospital, shouting in a pediatric wing, and insulting the Chief Resident. I can have security escort you out of this building before you can even check your stock portfolio."

Elias grabbed Victoria's arm, pulling her back. "Stop it, Victoria. Shut up. Just... stop."

"Don't you tell me to shut up!" she hissed, wrenching her arm free. "You dragged me out of a board meeting because your daughter fell off a playground, and now I walk in here to find your ex-girlfriend glowing like a pregnant Madonna? Did you sleep with her behind my back? Is that why you were acting so distant last month?"

"No!" Elias shouted, the desperation in his voice echoing off the tile walls. "I haven't seen her since the night we broke up! I didn't know! She never told me!"

Victoria froze. Her eyes darted back to me, realization dawning like a slow-moving train wreck.

"You didn't tell him?" Victoria whispered, a twisted, hysterical laugh escaping her lips. "Oh, this is rich. You trapped him! You kept his kid a secret just to trap him—"

"I didn't trap anyone," I interrupted, pushing off the counter and stepping right into her personal space. My height and unblinking gaze made her flinch. "I didn't want his money, I didn't want his pity, and I certainly didn't want his toxic leftovers. I wanted peace. Something neither of you know a damn thing about."

Before Victoria could fire back, the door to Trauma Bay Two clicked open.

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"Dr. Brooks? Sophie just woke up. She's asking for her daddy... and she's asking for the pretty doctor with the baby in her tummy."