flash
The heavy double doors of the Saint Aurelia Neonatal Intensive Care Unit burst open with a resounding thud that echoed off the sterile glass walls. Dominic didn’t even have time to turn his head before six imposing men in dark tactical suits, led by the hospital’s head of executive security, flooded the room. / Chapter 9 / 20

Chapter 9 - THE PRISON CELL VISITFROM CORNER OFFICE TO HANDCUFFS: Dominic's Public Arrest at the NICU

Three weeks later, Dominic sat in a cold, fluorescent-lit visitor's room at the state penitentiary, waiting behind a thick glass partition. He was dressed in a rough denim inmate jumpsuit, his hands shackled to his waist.

The heavy steel door on the opposite side opened.

I walked in, looking radiant, wearing a tailored navy silk trench coat. I sat down on the stool and picked up the visitor's telephone.

Dominic slowly picked up his phone with trembling hands. His eyes were sunken, dark circles carved deep beneath them.

"Audrey..." he rasped, his voice cracking. "Please. I’m begging you. Talk to your grandfather. Tell him to drop the federal conspiracy charges. I’ll sign whatever you want. I’ll disappear forever. Just don't let me die in here."

I looked at him with complete detachment. "You thought I was weak, Dominic. You thought because I didn't brag about my wealth, because I preferred to cook dinner at home and support your pathetic dreams, that I had no strength."

"I was wrong!" he cried, tears streaming down his face. "I was stupid! Natalie tricked me—"

"Natalie didn't trick you," I interrupted coldly. "Your own greed destroyed you. Oh, and by the way, Dominic... I brought a little present for you."

I pressed a piece of paper against the glass partition.

It was a certified DNA paternity test.

Dominic leaned forward, scanning the document. His eyes widened in horrific realization as he read the final line: Probability of Paternity: 0.00%.

"The baby Natalie is carrying isn't yours," I whispered through the phone, my voice like velvet ice. "It belongs to Julian Hayes. You ruined your entire life, sold your soul to my corrupt uncle, and faced a thirty-year prison sentence... for another man's child."

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The heavy brass key felt impossibly cold against my palm, yet the metal hummed with a quiet, persistent gravity. I stared down at the simple platinum band on my left ring finger—the same ring Mara had slipped onto my hand twelve years ago in a quiet ceremony by the coast. She had always joked that my fingerprints would eventually wear the metal down to a thread.

The heavy brass key felt impossibly cold against my palm, yet the metal...

I didn’t wipe the blood from my nose. I let it drip onto the pristine white bodice of my ten-thousand-dollar wedding gown, watching the crimson bloom against the silk like ink on parchment.

I didn’t wipe the blood from my nose. I let it drip onto the pristine wh...

The shards of crystal caught the cold light of the recessed kitchen ceiling, scattering tiny prisms across the imported Italian marble. I didn’t move immediately. I stayed crouched on the floor, the blood humming faintly in my ears, while Claudia’s sharp heels clicked away toward the foyer, her displeasure radiating like a physical chill.

The shards of crystal caught the cold light of the recessed kitchen ceil...

Dominic let out a blood-curdling scream of agony and slammed his head against the glass. "NO! NO! IT'S NOT TRUE! AUDREY, NO!"

I hung up the phone, stood up, and walked away without looking back once as the guards tackled him to the floor.

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