Chapter 4 - The Hospital Interception
The rain was falling in heavy, blinding sheets as the black armored Maybach tore through the empty streets toward the private entrance of the Costello Medical Wing.
Sadi sat in the leather back seat, her hands wrapped tightly in warm, sterile bandages that Victor’s personal medic had applied before they left the estate.
Beside her sat Victor. He had put on a heavy charcoal wool overcoat over his white shirt, his broad shoulders filling the cabin. He was silently scrolling through secure files on a leather-bound tablet, his face illuminated by the faint blue glow of the screen.
"He really is safe?" Sadi asked for the fourth time, her voice barely a whisper against the hum of the engine.
Victor didn't look up from his tablet, but his voice was steady and grounding. "Dr. Mercer is the chief of pediatric oncology at Columbia. He has been on my payroll for twelve years. Your brother is currently in an armored ambulance surrounded by four of my best men. He is safer right now than the President of the United States."
Sadi let her head fall back against the soft leather headrest. The sheer, overwhelming relief felt like a physical weight lifting off her lungs, making her dizzy.
For eight grueling months, she had carried the entire world on her fractured shoulders. She had woken up every morning at 5:00 AM, scrubbed floors until her fingers bled, cried herself to sleep in her cold car, and spent every waking second calculating pennies, interest rates, and chemotherapy doses.
Now, suddenly, a man whose name was whispered in dark alleys like a curse had stepped between her and the abyss.
"Why?" Sadi murmured, turning her head to look at Victor’s hard profile. "You don't know me, Mr. Costello. I'm just a maid."
Victor slowly turned his head. His dark eyes locked onto hers with an intensity that made her breath catch.
"You're not 'just a maid,' Sadi," he said softly. "I've watched you for eight months."
Sadi froze. "You... you watched me?"
"My estate has sixty-four security cameras," Victor said casually, setting the tablet aside. "I see everything that happens in my house. I saw you arrive three hours before your shift every night to study medical textbooks in the breakroom. I saw you skip lunch so you could send your food allowance to the hospital. And I saw you scrub the marble floors outside my office until your hands bled, without ever making a single complaint."
He leaned closer to her, his powerful frame looming over her in the dim cabin.
"A person who breaks under pressure is common in my world," Victor murmured, his tone deep and intimate. "A person who bleeds in silence to protect someone they love... that is rare. I respect strength, Sadi. And you are the strongest woman I have ever met."
Sadi felt a sudden, fierce heat bloom in her cheeks. No one had ever spoken to her like that. Her whole life, people had taken her gentleness for weakness. Her relatives had abandoned her when her parents died; Mick had viewed her as an easy target.
Yet here was the most feared man in the city, looking at her as if she were made of gold.
The Maybach smoothly pulled into the underground garage of the private medical facility.
The doors were opened immediately by armed guards in crisp suits.
Sadi scrambled out of the car, her heart pounding as she saw the private elevator doors open. Two paramedics pushed a state-of-the-art medical gurney out into the brightly lit corridor.
On the gurney lay Sam.
He looked so small beneath the heavy white blankets, his skin pale and his hair thin from the previous rounds of radiation, but his chest was rising and falling in a slow, peaceful rhythm. An IV line was taped neatly to his arm, connected to a quiet, high-tech monitor.
"Sam!" Sadi cried, rushing forward.
She fell to her knees beside the gurney, gently cupping his pale cheek with her bandaged hand.
Sam’s eyelids fluttered open slowly. He blinked against the bright lights, his dark hazel eyes—so like Sadi’s—focusing on her face.
"Sadi...?" he mumbled groggy from the mild sedative. "Where are we? Did... did I miss the morning vitals?"
"No, baby, no," Sadi sobbed, smiling through her tears as she kissed his forehead. "You're safe. We're in a new hospital. A better hospital."
Sam looked past her, his eyes widening slightly as he saw Victor Costello standing right behind Sadi, imposing and dark in his wool coat, surrounded by armed men.
"Who's he?" Sam asked weakly.
Sadi looked up at Victor.
Victor stepped forward, placing a warm, heavy hand on Sadi’s shoulder. The gesture was so natural, so protective, that it sent a shiver down her spine.
"I'm Victor, son," Victor said gently to the boy, his voice softer than Sadi had ever heard it. "I'm your sister's employer. You're going to stay here for a while. The doctors are going to fix your blood, and nobody is ever going to bother you again."
Sam looked at Victor’s face, then at Sadi’s peaceful, tear-stained expression. Slowly, the boy nodded, letting his eyes close as the exhaustion took over again. "Okay... thanks, Mr. Victor..."
As the paramedics wheeled Sam into the private suite, Dr. Mercer—a tall, distinguished man in a white coat—approached Victor.
"He's stable, Victor," Dr. Mercer reported quietly. "The previous hospital was giving him low-grade generics. We've already started him on the target-cell immunotherapy protocol from Switzerland. His chances of full remission just jumped from twenty percent to eighty."
Sadi covered her mouth with both hands, letting out a choked cry of pure joy.
Victor nodded to the doctor. "Spare no expense. Put two men on the door at all times."
"Understood, Boss."
Victor turned back to Sadi. He held out his arm to her. "Come, Sadi. We have one more stop tonight."
Sadi looked at his offered arm, then up at his dark, unreadable eyes. Without hesitation this time, she slid her bandaged hand around his forearm.
May you like
"Where are we going?" she asked softly.
Victor’s mouth curved into a dark, lethal smile. "To settle your account with Mick O'Shea."
