Chapter 6

Grace Keller POV:

The world was a blur of frantic motion and muffled sounds. I was being lifted onto a gurney, my brother onto another. The sterile white ceiling of the hospital corridor rushed past above me.

Just as they were wheeling me towards the emergency room, a commotion erupted at the main entrance. Paramedics rushed in a new gurney. On it, looking pale and artfully disheveled, was Fabiola.

"Julian!" she cried, reaching a hand out dramatically. "I was so scared! I needed some time away, but then I heard what happened to Grace... I came as fast as I could."

The head of the ER, a doctor I recognized, looked between me, my brother, and Fabiola. "We only have one trauma team available right now."

I watched Julian's face. For a moment, just a moment, he looked torn. His eyes met mine, and in their depths, I saw a maelstrom of guilt and confusion.

It was almost enough to make me hope.

But then Fabiola spoke again, her voice weak but laced with steel. "My hands," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. "I'm a surgeon, Julian. My hands are my life. If anything happens to them... I don't know what I'll do. It's all my fault. If I hadn't gone away, Grace wouldn't have done... this."

The conflict in Julian's eyes vanished, replaced by a familiar, chilling resolve. He made his choice. It was always his choice.

He turned to the doctor. "Treat her first."

Then he looked at me, his expression a mixture of pity and blame. "I'm sorry, Grace," he said, his voice low. "But you brought this on yourself."

The world began to fade to black. The last thing I heard was Fabiola's soft, triumphant voice and the sound of my own gurney being pushed to the side.

I survived. Barely. They called it a miracle. I called it a curse.

Days later, I lay in my hospital bed, a broken doll held together by pins and plates. A phone, a burner phone Josephine had arranged to be smuggled in, rang softly under my pillow.

"Are you sure about this, Grace?" Josephine's voice was grave. "There's no turning back."

I thought of Julian's cold eyes as he chose her. I thought of my father in his coma, my brother with his shattered leg. I thought of the rats in the dark, the peanut paste clogging my throat, the brutal impact of the car.

"I'm sure," I said, my voice a steel blade. "Burn it all down."

The plan was in motion. Josephine, with her immense, quiet power, was moving pieces on a chessboard Julian didn't even know he was playing on. My father and brother would be moved to a private facility under new names. A new life was waiting for us, somewhere far away. All that was left was the final act.

When Julian came to visit, his face etched with a hollow sort of guilt, I was ready.

"I need you to leave," I said, my voice cold and empty.

He flinched as if I had struck him. "Grace, I..."

"Get out," I repeated, my gaze fixed on the ceiling. I refused to look at him.

He stared at me, his mouth opening and closing, but no words came out. For the first time in his life, Julian Pena was speechless. He, the man who commanded boardrooms and brought competitors to their knees with a single word, was dismissed. By me.

He finally turned and left, the sound of his footsteps echoing the hollow space he had carved out of my heart.