Chapter 71

The Maybach shot forward like an arrow released from its bow, its engine roaring.

Stella Valentine clutched the seatbelt, her nails digging into her palms.

"Adrian Roland! Have you lost your mind?"

His knuckles whitened around the steering wheel. "Who was that man?"

"None of your business."

The speedometer needle jerked toward the red line.

Her stomach churned violently, darkness creeping at the edges of her vision.

A screech of tires shattered the night.

Adrian yanked her from the car and swept her into his arms.

"Let me go!"

"Too late."

The bedroom door crashed open, making her flinch.

She landed hard on the mattress, his scorching weight pinning her down.

"I regret it," Adrian rasped, his voice raw.

She struggled wildly, but he easily trapped her wrists above her head.

"Lily Savigny couldn't satisfy you?" Her laugh was brittle. "Since when has the great Mr. Roland been so desperate?"

His eyes darkened dangerously before he crushed his mouth to hers.

The metallic tang of blood bloomed between them.

Stella went rigid. A searing pain tore through her abdomen.

Cold sweat drenched her back.

"What's wrong?" Adrian tensed at her sudden stillness.

She curled into a fetal position, her face ghostly pale.

Crimson spread across the white sheets like a grotesque flower.

Adrian's pupils contracted. "Stella!"

"Hos...pital..." Her whisper faded.

When the housekeeper arrived with wailing Luna, she found Adrian sprinting downstairs, clutching Stella's blood-soaked form.

The infant's cries pierced the air.

"A mother and child share one heart..." The old woman's eyes glistened.

Outside the ER:

"Postoperative wound rupture! Hypovolemic shock!"

The doctor glared at Adrian. "You didn't know she just had breast surgery?"

He stood frozen.

The emergency light bathed his ashen face in hellish red.

Monitors shrieked alarms.

Blood pressure plummeted.

60...50...40...

"Clear!"

"Epinephrine 1mg IV push!"

Stella's frail body convulsed under the electric current before collapsing.

Like a broken doll.

Adrian slammed his fist into the wall, skin splitting over his knuckles.

The realization struck him with brutal clarity—

He was losing her.