Jeffrey was sitting on the sofa, the picture of calm. His eyesnded on the frantic Reba as he said tly, “He’s not out of the woods.”
Reba tried to steady her racing mind. This was the Hanson Group’s hospital, one of the best in the world. They could fix this. “What did the doctors say? What did he react to? What are his symptoms<b>?</b><b>” </b>
“I haven’t authorized them to treat him,” Jeffrey said, locking eyes with her.
The words seemed to hang in the air, making no sense. “What?”
“Let me be clearer,” Jeffrey said. “Samuel’s survival depends on you. On whether or not youe back home.”
For a heartbeat, she just stared. Then the horror crashed over her. “Are
you insane?”
This was pure fury, unlike anything she’d felt before. She never dreamed he would use their son’s life as a bargaining chip. “He is your son, too,” she shrieked. “Don’t you even care if he dies?”
“That’s why I left the door open for you,” Jeffrey said with that same chilling calm. “I’ve been waiting for your answer.”
Reba froze as the pieces clicked into ce with horrifying rity. Lena must have called Jeffrey first. He knew she’de, and he’d been waiting to bargain with her.
“The choice is simple. You agree to be Mrs. Hanson again, and I’ll make one phone call <i>to </i>save Samuel’s life,” Jeffrey stated. His calm, even tone was a form of torture, pressing down on her. “Otherwise, he’s on his own.”
“You wouldn’t do this to him,” Reba said, trying to stay calm.
Jeffrey was cruel, but he’d always been a good father. He was Samuel’s dad. She couldn’t believe he would risk Samuel’s life like this.
“Wanna bet?” Every word was a threat. “Go ahead and gamble. Just be sure you can live with the consequences of losing.”
Reba stared, searching his face for any sign of a bluff. But there was nothing.
Fumbling for her phone, she ced a video call to Timothy. “Dr. Johnson, how is Samuel?”
“He’s in the ER,” Timothy said, turning the camera so Reba could see. “Mr. Hanson gave a direct order. No one touches Samuel without his say–<i>so</i>.”
“Can I just see him?” Panic was rising in her throat like bile. Her gut screamed that this was all some twisted game, but the tiny, terrifying “what if” was choking her.
Timothy didn’t say anything.
Jeffrey nced at her phone. “You can,” he said, his voice t.
Reba’s eyes shot back to Jeffrey, and thest pir of her hope–the stubborn belief that there was a line he would never cross–began to crumble.
The view on her phone shifted as Timothy pushed through the swinging doors of the ER. Then she saw Samuel, lying still on a hospital gurney.
The boy was covered in angry red welts. His lips were bloodless, and his forehead was gleaming with sweat. A team of doctors and nurses surrounded him, standing by uselessly, waiting for the word.
The image sent a spike of pain through Reba’s heart. Her head snapped up, her eyes locking on Jeffrey. “What the hell do you want?”
“Come back and be my wife, Mrs. Hanson. I don’t want to hear another word about divorce,” Jeffrey said, lifting his eyelidszily as if nothing bothered him. His voice was so slow and steady. “And you don’t leave my side. Ever.”
Reba’s hands slowly balled into fists at her sides, knuckles whitening.
“Every second you waste debating,” Jeffrey added, his tone unchanged, “is another second he suffers.”
Reba bit down on her lip, fighting for control. “And what if I say no?”
“You won’t,” he said, as if stating aw of physics. He held her gaze. “Your heart is soft for everyone in the world but me. And Samuel is your weakest point.”
Reba’s nails dug into her palms, but the physical pain was nothingpared to the agony ripping through her chest. She wanted to fight, to scream, but her fear for Samuel was a chain, pulling her back. She had to give in.
“Save him,” she choked out. “Now.”
“So,” Jeffrey said, “is that a yes?”
“Yes,” she spat. She couldn’t gamble with Samuel’s life. If Samuel died because she was too proud to break, she would spend the rest of her life in a hell of her own making.
Jeffrey calmly slid a document across the coffee table toward her. “Then sign this.”
“Jeffrey!” she screamed, her voice cracking with disbelief. “Are you kidding me? Samuel is fighting for his life, and you’re just thinking about the damn agreement? Is he even your son?”
Ignoring herpletely, Jeffrey spoke to the phone in her hand. “You can begin treatment. Call me the second he is stable.”
“Right away,” Timothy replied.
The video call ended. Jeffrey stood, walked to the door, and locked it. He picked up the agreement and held it in front of her face. “Now you can sign.”
Reba looked at Jeffrey, and it was like seeing a stranger. ‘How can anyone be this heartless?‘ she thought. ‘Our son is in the ER, and this is what’s on his mind?‘
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“I will sign it,” she said coldly, every wordced with hatred. “But I will never, ever forgive you
“Your forgiveness doesn’t matter to me,” Jeffrey said, holding out a pen. “I just want you to stay. Willingly.”
“This isn’t willing,” she spat.
“You sign this,” he replied simply. “And that makes it willing”
She looked at him. A storm of emotions raged behind her eyes. The man in front of her was someone she didn’t know at all.
Jeffrey held the pen out. “You have ten seconds,” he said, his voice low. “Or I’ll text the doctor to stop
treatment.”
Reba ripped the pen from his grasp and scrawled her name on the agreement. She pressed down with so much force that the nib of the pen tore a gash in the paper on the final stroke.
She mmed the pen down on the table with a loud crack. Her eyes were zing with a pure, white–hot hatred when she looked up at him. “There. Are you happy now?”
Jeffrey picked up the document. When he saw her signature, the knot of anxiety he’d been carrying for a while finally began to unwind in his chest.
He watched as she immediately started texting Timothy, not giving the paper a second nce. “You think this is meaningless, don’t you?” he said. “Just a piece of paper with no legal power.”
Reba froze, her fingers suspended over the screen. That was exactly what she thought. In her panic over Samuel, she hadn’t been thinking clearly enough to sign anything.
But as her head cleared, she realized an agreement like this was legally meaningless. It only mattered for those with a conscience. And Jeffrey had killed hers when he put their son’s life on the line.
“To me, your signature is a promise,” Jeffrey said, his thumb stroking the paper. “Break it, and I will enforce the penalties. The consequences will be yours, and yours alone.”
Reba stared at him, disbelief written all over her face. Jeffrey grabbed her hand and pulled her straight into his arms. She instinctively tried to pull away.
“Rule number one: You are Mrs. Hanson, my good wife,” he said, holding her firmly. His voice was terrifyingly calm, his words like ice. “Do I need to remind you that Samuel’s doctors still answer to me?”
“Do you enjoy this?” Reba asked, searching his t, empty eyes for any sign of emotions.
He said nothing, simply holding her gaze. The air grew thick, suffocating her. ‘If I live by these rules,‘ she thought with a crushing sense of despair, ‘what am I but a bird in his gilded cage?
Jeffrey ignored her question, insteadying out the terms of her surrender. “When this trip is over, you will move back to the manor. You will share my bed. You will be on my arm at every public function.”
He added before she could speak, “You can, of course, refuse any of these things. If you’re willing to pay the price.”
He tried to press the signed agreement back into her hand. She wouldn’t take it, but she couldn’t from scanning the uses.
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stop
her eyes
A silentugh bubbled in her chest. ‘So that’s the fine print,‘ she thought. ‘If I step out of line, he’lle for my mother. My son. Jessica.n.
And it’s all my fault for not being a good little captive. He’s just the one pulling the strings. How convenient.
“You should have just written one sentence,” she said, her voice hollow as her heart turned to stone. “Like, I will live the rest of my life in the cage you built for me. It would’ve saved you some ink.”
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