Chapter 4: The Final Cruelty
[Seraphina POV]
The heart monitor's shrill alarm cuts through the penthouse suite like a knife. I watch the jagged lines on the screen flatten into something that makes my stomach drop.
"No, no, no!" I grab my mother's shoulders, shaking her limp body. "Mom, please!"
Behind me, Marco's voice cuts through my panic like ice. "This way is better, actually. Saves me a fortune in medical bills!"
I spin around, my vision blurring with tears and rage. He's standing there with his arm around Livia, both of them watching my mother die like it's some kind of entertainment.
"How can you say that?" I scream. "She's dying!"
The heart monitor's beeping becomes more erratic, more desperate. I lunge toward the gurney, but Marco's bodyguards step into my path. Two massive men in black suits, their faces carved from stone.
"Let me through!" I claw at them, trying to push past. "She needs help!"
But they grab my arms, holding me back as I thrash and scream. My mother's breathing becomes more labored, each breath a struggle that tears at my heart.
"Dante, I feel terrible, you have to help me!" Livia suddenly cries out from the bed, clutching her side dramatically.
Marco immediately turns his attention to her, his face full of concern. "What's wrong, baby?"
"The pain," she whimpers. "It's getting so much worse."
I can't believe what I'm seeing. My mother is literally dying ten feet away, and this woman is faking pain to get attention.
"Marco!" I scream, fighting against the bodyguards' grip. "Look at the monitor! Look at her!"
But he's completely focused on Livia now, stroking her hair and murmuring sweet reassurances. The heart monitor's alarm grows more urgent, more desperate.
"Please," I beg the bodyguards. "Just let me hold her hand. Please."
They don't budge.
The monitor's beeping becomes irregular, then starts to slow. I watch in horror as the lines on the screen begin to flatten.
"Mom!" I bite down hard on one of the bodyguard's hands, tasting blood. He jerks back with a curse, and I break free for just a moment.
But before I can reach the gurney, electricity shoots through my body like liquid fire. Every muscle seizes up, and I collapse to the marble floor, convulsing.
Marco stands over me with a stun gun in his hand, his face twisted with rage.
"Seraphina, since you insist on being so defiant, then you can't blame me for being ruthless."
I can barely breathe. The electricity has left me weak and shaking, my vision swimming. Through the haze, I can see my mother's chest barely rising and falling.
"Men!" Marco shouts to his bodyguards. "Move the surgery up. I want her kidney taken out, now!"
"No," I gasp, trying to crawl toward my mother. "Please, just let me—"
The bodyguards grab me again, dragging me toward the door. I fight them with everything I have left, but my body won't cooperate. The stun gun has left me too weak.
"Mom!" I scream as they pull me away. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
They drag me down the hallway to another room—this one sterile white, with an operating table in the center. Medical equipment lines the walls, and bright surgical lights hang from the ceiling like mechanical vultures.
The bodyguards slam me down onto the table, strapping my wrists and ankles to the metal rails. I pull against the restraints until my skin tears, but they won't give.
Through the open doorway, I can still hear the heart monitor from my mother's room. The beeping is getting slower. Weaker.
"Please," I whisper to anyone who will listen. "Please don't let her die alone."
A doctor in surgical scrubs enters the room, followed by two nurses. They move with clinical efficiency, preparing instruments and checking machines.
The heart monitor in the other room gives one long, continuous beep.
Then silence.
"Mom!" I scream, pulling so hard against the restraints that blood runs down my arms. "MOM!"
But there's no answer. Just that terrible, endless silence where her heartbeat used to be.
Marco appears in the doorway, his face cold and satisfied. "It's done," he says to the medical team. "Proceed with the surgery."
"You killed her," I sob, my voice breaking. "You killed my mother."
He doesn't even look at me. "Prep her for anesthesia."
One of the nurses approaches with a syringe. I try to turn my head away, but she grabs my chin, holding me still.
"There can be no complications," Marco says, his voice echoing in the sterile room. "If this one isn't viable, immediately transplant her second kidney! Remember, I will not allow Livia to be in even the slightest bit of danger!"
The needle slides into my arm, and darkness begins to creep in from the edges of my vision. My last coherent thought is of my mother's face, peaceful in death, and the promise I make to her fading spirit.
I will make him pay for this.
The anesthesia pulls me under, but Marco's cold voice follows me into the darkness: "There can be no complications. If this one isn't viable, immediately transplant her second kidney! Remember, I will not allow Livia to be in even the slightest bit of danger!"