Chapter 3 - The Hospital and the True King
The siren of the private ambulance cut through the afternoon traffic as Victor’s personal medical team rushed me toward the city’s top private hospital.
Ethan, my husband, was sitting beside my gurney, holding my hand so tightly his knuckles turned white. He had abandoned his construction site the moment he received Victor’s emergency text, his work boots still covered in plaster, his eyes red with terror.
"I'm so sorry, Maya," Ethan choked out, pressing his lips against my fingers. "I should have been at the shower. I knew my mother was toxic, but I never... I never thought she would physically hurt you..."
"It’s not your fault, Ethan," I whispered weakly, wincing as another dull cramp washed over my lower abdomen. "She kept telling me that I was taking you away from her... that I didn't deserve the Sterling name..."
"The Sterling name is worthless," Ethan snapped, a dark, terrifying intensity filling his eyes that I had never seen before in our four years of marriage. "She spent thirty years pretending my father left her an empire. She doesn't know I paid off father's secret debts five years ago just to keep her out of prison."
The ambulance doors burst open at the Saint Jude Medical Center trauma bay. A team of six specialists, personally assembled by Victor Vance, rolled my gurney straight into the high-risk maternity ward.
For two terrifying hours, Ethan paced the hallway outside the ultrasound suite while doctors monitored my baby’s heart rate. Victor Vance stood near the floor-to-ceiling windows, whispering quiet orders into his encrypted satellite phone.
"Every line of credit associated with Margaret Sterling," Victor commanded into the receiver. "Freeze them. The country club membership, the luxury vehicles leased under her name, the charge accounts at Saks and Bergdorf—cancel every single one by nightfall."
The door to the ultrasound room clicked open. Dr. Elizabeth Chen, the head of maternal medicine, stepped out pulling off her surgical mask.
Ethan rushed forward. "Doctor! My wife! The baby!"
Dr. Chen offered a warm, reassuring smile. "Your wife has a severe contusion on her hip and two bruised ribs, Mr. Vance-Sterling. But miraculously, the amniotic sac did not rupture. The baby’s heartbeat is strong and steady. With strict bed rest for the remaining four weeks, both mother and child will be fine."
Ethan let out a ragged, shuddering gasp, dropping his forehead against the cold tile wall in pure relief. "Thank God... thank God..."
Victor walked over, placing a heavy, supportive hand on Ethan's shoulder. "Now that Maya and your child are safe, Ethan... it’s time to deal with your mother."
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Ethan raised his head. The quiet, humble man who used to let his mother talk down to him at family dinners was gone. In his place stood a man ready to protect his family at any cost.
"She thought she was embarrassing Maya today," Ethan said, his voice dropping into a register colder than winter steel. "She wanted to destroy my wife's dignity. Uncle Victor... call Marcus Vance and the legal team. I want Margaret stripped of everything before the sun rises tomorrow."
