Chapter 4 - The Shadow of the EmpireThe heavy doors clicked shut behind the guards, leaving an eerie, profound silence in the NICU.
I sank back into the visitor's chair, the adrenaline crash hitting me like a physical wave. My breathing hitched, and a sharp spike of pain radiated across my lower abdomen.
In an instant, Arthur was kneeling beside me, his tough exterior melting away to reveal the fierce, doting grandfather who had raised me after my parents died in a plane crash when I was four.
"Medic!" Arthur barked, waving his hand frantically toward the nurses' station.
Within seconds, Dr. Evelyn Vance—no relation to Dominic, thank God—rushed in with a team of pediatric nurses. They checked my vitals, adjusted my pain management, and ensured the C-section stitches hadn't ruptured from the stress.
"She needs absolute quiet and horizontal rest, Mr. Sterling," Dr. Vance said firmly, looking at my grandfather with professional authority. "Her body is still recovering from a near-fatal placental abruption. If her blood pressure spikes again, we'll have to sedate her."
"I am fine," I murmured, waving a hand weakly. I turned my head toward the incubators. "How are they?"
Dr. Vance’s expression softened into a warm, reassuring smile. "Liam and Chloe are fighters, Audrey. Their heart rates have stabilized significantly since that adrenaline spike a few minutes ago. They heard your voice. Babies know their mother's frequency, even through glass and steel."
I let out a long, ragged breath, tears finally spilling over my lashes, not of sorrow, but of sheer, overwhelming relief.
Arthur waited until the medical staff stepped back to monitor the incubators from the nursing station. He pulled up a chair right beside me, taking my cold hand in his large, weathered palm.
"You should have called me sooner, my girl," Arthur said gently. "I told you when you married that corporate parasite that he lacked backbone. I gave you my blessing only because you insisted on learning the hard way. But this..." He shook his head, his blue eyes flashing. "This crossed a line."
"I needed to see it, Grandfather," I replied, squeezing his hand back. "If I had stepped in with your lawyers three years ago, he would have resented me, claimed I was holding him back, played the victim. I gave him enough rope to hang himself. And he didn't just hang himself—he built the gallows, tied the knot, and jumped off the stool all by himself."
Arthur let out a low, rumbling chuckle that sounded like thunder rolling over a mountain range. "Ah, that's my girl. The blood of the Sterling shipping and tech empire runs true in your veins after all."
He leaned in closer, his expression turning serious.
"Speaking of empires... Dominic’s medical supply company is currently insolvent. He was leveraging our hospital contracts to secure high-interest loans from private syndicates to fund his lifestyle with that woman. Now that we've terminated his supply contract and seized his corporate assets for breach of contract, those syndicates are going to come looking for their money."
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"Let them," I said coldly. "He wanted to leave me on my own. Let him experience what true isolation feels like."
"Oh, it gets better," Arthur smiled, a chillingly pleasant curve of his lips. "I’ve already instructed our legal team to audit every single invoice Dominic submitted to Saint Aurelia over the last three years. If he padded those numbers—and knowing his greed, he certainly did—we aren't just going to bankrupt him. We are going to send him to a federal penitentiary for corporate fraud."
