Chapter 3 - The Medical File And The Phantom Debt
The ballroom air grew noticeably thinner as two hundred hostages stood in frightened silence, watching an empire unravel from the inside.
Julian’s breathing grew harsher, a faint blue tinge creeping along his pale lips.
His congenital heart defect was flaring under the overwhelming psychological tension of the locked room.
I dropped to my knees, opening my small canvas handbag to pull out Julian’s emergency inhaler and digital pulse oximeter.
“Julian, breathe with mommy,” I whispered frantically, checking his pulse while shielding him from the dozens of staring eyes.
Gabriel’s instincts bypassed his shock the instant he noticed the medical emergency.
He was down on the floor beside me within a heartbeat, tossing aside his custom tuxedo jacket without a second thought.
“What is wrong with him?” Gabriel demanded, his authoritative tone laced with unmistakable dread.
“He has severe ventricular septal defect complicated by pulmonary hypertension,” I said without looking at him, administering the inhaler into Julian’s mouth.
“That is why I came to this gala, Gabriel.”
“Not for your billions, not to ruin your pathetic engagement, and certainly not to see you.”
I pulled a thick manila envelope from my bag and shoved it hard against his broad chest.
“I applied to the Hudson Children’s Foundation three months ago under my maiden name.”
“Julian was granted an emergency approval for Dr. Bennett’s experimental valve reconstructive surgery.”
“Then, yesterday morning, the foundation sent a termination notice stating that our application had been manually revoked by executive order from the director’s office.”
“The only way to save my son’s life was to personally confront the foundation board at this gala tonight.”
Gabriel tore the envelope open with violent urgency, his eyes scanning through the medical records, echocardiogram graphs, and the signed revocation letter.
At the bottom of the rejection page, stamped in bold crimson ink, was the executive signature of Serena Vale, Vice-Chairwoman of the Hudson Foundation.
Gabriel’s expression morphed from anguish into pure, homicidal rage.
He stood up slowly, holding the paper in his hand, his knuckles turning white as he crushed the edge of the document.
“Serena,” Gabriel said, his voice dropping into a register so quiet that the entire ballroom seemed to freeze.
Serena turned visibly pale, her throat bobbing as she stepped backward toward the grand piano.
“Gabriel, listen to me, that foundation receives thousands of fraudulent cases every single month!” she stammered, raising her hands defensively.
“Her maiden name appeared in the system and I thought it was an extortion attempt!”
“I acted to protect our financial assets!”
“You signed a death sentence for a five-year-old child who shares my blood,” Gabriel said, each word landing like an executioner’s axe.
“You didn’t know he was mine, which means you would have happily let any innocent boy die to safeguard a negligible fraction of my foundation’s budget.”
“He is NOT your child!” Serena screamed, losing all sanity as she realized she was losing control over him.
“Claire was sleeping with Marcus Rossi before you divorced her!”
“Ask Dominic!”
“Dominic investigated her hotel room five years ago and brought you the surveillance photos!”
At the mention of his name, Dominic, the head of Gabriel’s personal guard, shifted slightly near the mahogany bar.
I turned my head toward Dominic, feeling an old, festering wound rip wide open.
Five years ago, Gabriel had come home smelling of gunpowder and betrayal, throwing a folder of blurry photographs onto our bed.
The photos showed me entering a hotel suite with Marcus Rossi, Gabriel’s most lethal enemy in the five boroughs.
No matter how many times I screamed that I had been drugged and lured there under the pretense of meeting a real estate client, Gabriel had refused to believe me.
Serena had stood by his side that night, presenting fake hotel keycard logs and manufactured telephone records.
Gabriel had cast me out into the pouring rain with nothing but the clothes on my back, convinced I had betrayed his family.
Leo stood firmly next to Julian, wiping a drop of sweat from his brother’s forehead.
“Mommy never lies,” Leo said loudly, his childish voice cutting through the adult malice.
“Mommy works two jobs at the bakery and the library so Julian can have medicine.”
“She tells us our daddy died in a storm so we wouldn’t feel sad that he wasn’t there.”
Gabriel recoiled as if a physical blade had pierced his sternum.
“You told them I was dead?” he whispered, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.
“It was better than telling them their father was a monster who traded their mother for a viper,” I answered without remorse.
Gabriel swallowed hard, the agonizing truth carving lines into his handsome face.
He turned his head toward his personal physician, Dr. Samuel Evans, who happened to be among the captive guests near the front row.
“Samuel,” Gabriel ordered, his voice brooking no argument.
Dr. Evans stepped forward immediately, carrying a portable medical kit that all syndicate physicians kept in their vehicles.
“Perform a rapid-response DNA paternity test right now,” Gabriel commanded.
“Use the forensic lab setup in the security control room downstairs.”
“I want the results before the hour ends.”
Serena gasped, her hand clawing at Gabriel’s arm.
“Gabriel, you cannot let her humiliate our name this way!”
Gabriel roughly shoved her hand away, not even granting her a glance.
May you like
“Take the blood, Samuel,” Gabriel ordered.
“And if anyone tries to leave this ballroom or tamper with the basement lab, shoot them on sight.”
