Chapter 4 - THE DEBT COLLECTOR
The air in the ICU turned to shattered glass.
Ethan didn't let go of Richard’s wrist. He squeezed harder, watching the color drain from the man’s knuckles. “You work for my family’s firm,” Ethan stated, the pieces sliding into a sickening puzzle.
“I work in acquisitions,” Richard grunted, trying to yank his arm back. He failed. “Now let me go, or I’ll have your medical license revoked for assaulting a patient’s legal proxy.”
“Code Blue, Room 4,” Ethan said loudly, not breaking eye contact.
Within five seconds, three nurses and a security guard burst into the room.
“Dr. Caldwell?” the lead nurse asked, alarmed.
“This man is threatening a post-operative patient in critical condition,” Ethan said smoothly, finally releasing Richard’s arm with a violent shove backward. “Escort him off the floor. Put a security detail on this door. If Mr. Vance steps foot in this hospital again, have him arrested for trespassing.”
“You can’t do this!” Richard shouted as the heavy-set security guards grabbed him by the shoulders. “I have a legal document!”
“I am invoking emergency medical hold,” Ethan fired back. “Her life is in danger, which overrides your proxy. Get out of my hospital.”
As Richard was dragged through the sliding glass doors, he locked eyes with Hannah. “This isn’t over, Hannah. You know what happens if you miss a payment.”
The doors slid shut. The nurses checked Hannah’s vitals, gave Ethan a worried glance, and filed out, leaving the two of them alone in the quiet hum of the machines.
Ethan locked the door. He turned slowly, walking back to the bed.
Hannah was hyperventilating, her hands clutching the thin hospital blanket to her chin. The fresh bruises on her ribs seemed to stand out darker against her pale skin.
“Payment?” Ethan asked, his voice deadly quiet. He pulled the chair up and sat, leaning in close. “He talked about a payment. And he wears a Caldwell lapel pin. Explain it to me, Hannah. Right now.”
Hannah closed her eyes, a tear tracking down her temple. “Five years ago, after you proposed… your mother came to my apartment.”
Ethan tensed. “Victoria? She told me she never spoke to you.”
“She told me a lot of things,” Hannah laughed, a bitter, broken sound. “She told me I was a gold digger. She said I was ruining your future. But I didn't care. I loved you. I told her to get out.”
“So what changed?” Ethan pleaded. “Why did you leave the ring and disappear?”
“Because the next morning, my father was arrested,” Hannah whispered.
Ethan frowned. “Your father? The mechanic?”
“He had a gambling problem, Ethan. A bad one. He owed two hundred thousand dollars to some terrible people. Your mother bought his debt. She became his bookie. And she told me that if I didn't disappear, she would have him sent to federal prison for embezzlement… or worse, she’d let the loan sharks break his legs.”
Ethan felt the floor drop out from under him. “My mother bought a gambling debt to blackmail you?”
“She forced me to sign a paper saying I accepted a payout,” Hannah continued, sobbing openly now. “So you would hate me. So you wouldn’t come looking. Then she assigned Richard Vance to be my ‘handler.’ He’s a fixer for Caldwell Biotech. He made me sign that marriage certificate four years ago so he could control my legal rights, my bank accounts, everything. I’ve been working triple shifts at warehouses to pay off my father's debt to your family.”
Ethan looked at the yellowing bruises on her ribs. “Did Richard do that?”
Hannah instinctively covered her side. “I tried to run when I found out I was pregnant with the twins. I missed a payment. He found me. He… reminded me who owned me.”
Ethan stood up, kicking the heavy plastic chair across the room. It smashed against the wall. He had spent five years hating this woman. Five years throwing himself into surgeries, building a wall of ice around his heart, believing she had sold his grandmother’s ring for a European vacation.
While she was being tortured by his own mother.
“And eight months ago?” Ethan asked, his voice thick with unshed tears. “At the Drake Hotel. We ran into each other in the lobby. You came up to my room. You were so desperate… so beautiful. Why did you run away again?”
“Because Richard was waiting in the lobby,” Hannah choked out. “He saw us. He threatened to tell your mother. I had to leave the note. I had to make you think I used you. I thought I was protecting you.”
Ethan fell to his knees beside the bed. He took her small, callused hands in his, pressing them against his forehead. “I am so sorry. God, Hannah, I am so sorry I didn't fight harder for you.”
Hannah weakly stroked his dark hair. “It’s okay, Ethan. But you have to let me go. Your mother is too powerful. If she finds out about the babies—”
“She’s not touching my children,” Ethan said, looking up, his eyes burning with a terrifying, absolute resolve. “She’s not touching you. I am going to tear my family’s empire to the ground.”
A soft, polite knock tapped against the glass door.
Ethan turned.
May you like
Standing in the hallway, wearing a pristine white Chanel suit, her silver hair perfectly coiffed, was Victoria Caldwell. She was smiling. And in her perfectly manicured hand, she held a thick manila folder.
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