. The heart monitor flatlined with a long, final drone. She held her victorious pose for
nearby medical tray crashing to th
oom, her voice laced with feigned panic. "Somebody help!
past her, their faces grim.
pained gasp, and slid gracefully to the floor,
ualty. Lila was the priority, the fragile mother-to-be. A sharp cramp seized her abdom
awareness, a ghost in her own demise. She saw them
quickly across the screen. A message to Slade's assista
tal corridor twisting into a vortex of that final, hateful realization. Her consciousness was
ped her
of the clinic, but real, vibrant sunlight. She was in a hospital bed, but a different one.
on the bedside table. Beside it, a
year
resbyterian after the car crash that had left her with a mild concussion,
arks that had scarred her skin in another life. The hand of a twenty-
cold, exhilarating wave
se White. Seraphina remembered her. She remembered the gentle sm
erfully, holding up a syringe and a blood bag. "Tim
y, naively, become Lila's personal blood bank. The warmth i
ng desire for retribution, she swatted the nurse's hand. The syringe flew thro
gape, her kind face etched wit
nd cutting, "drawing blood from a patient without their explicit, written consent
ington was gone. In her place was a woman with eyes that looked like th
nistrators had been bought. She couldn
her voice a command th
aphina's fingers flew across the screen, dialing a number she knew by heart, a number from
Beau
er, a surge of pride and purpose. "Mr. Foster," she said,
of emotion. She was being held. They we
"inform my father. His heart isn't strong right now. Come here im
silence on the other end, then
dow at the New York City skyline, vibrant and al
ore than
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