They dragged me out of the room and dumped me on the freezing hospital corridor floor like I was garbage.
"CEO Gilbert's orders. Starting today, every privilege you had as Mrs. Gilbert is revoked."
"You're no longer entitled to this VIP room."
They took my phone. My wallet. They stripped the expensive hospital gown off my body and left me in nothing but the thinnest cotton slip underneath.
Penniless, post-op, standing in a dark hospital corridor in the middle of the night. Like a joke.
Giles came in person to pick me up.
Not to take me home.
To punish me.
He shoved me into the car and drove all the way out to his private woodland estate on the edge of the city.
The forest outside the windows was pitch black. The cold wind cut straight through me and I couldn't stop trembling.
The door opened and he pushed me out, hard.
"Kneel. Apologize to Lucy."
I looked at him. My eyes were dead.
"Never."
One word, and it lit the fuse on everything left of his rage.
He grabbed my hair and forced my face into the mud, then wrenched my head back so I had to look up at him.
"Beulah, you think you still get to make demands?"
He let go. Stepped back. Closed the car door.
"Stay here and think about what you've done."