Chapter 3 Crying for Help in the Dark

Dr. Gray rushed into the nearby nurse’s station like a madman, tearing through cabinets for emergency supplies.

Everything was empty.

No clamps. No gauze. Nothing.

“Where are the meds? The hemostatics? Oxytocin?” he roared at the two nurses.

One of them answered in a tiny voice, “They were all sent upstairs.”

“Mr. Vincenzo ordered that all medical resources go to Ms. Sophia first.”

Dr. Gray slammed his fist into the cabinet.

Then he looked at me, eyes red, lips trembling.

“I’m sorry, Camilla. I’m so sorry.”

“There’s nothing I can do...”

Lina walked over and patted his shoulder.

“Doctor, don’t get worked up.”

“My sister-in-law hasn’t delivered yet, has she? Once Sophia is done, the equipment and medicine can come back down.”

She glanced at the blood pouring from between my legs and added, “And even if the baby does come out, it’s only a girl. If she dies, she dies.”

“The Rossi family won’t miss this one.”

I stared at her.

At the woman I had treated like my own little sister for three years.

Then I forced out two words with everything I had left.

“You monster.”

Lina’s face darkened.

She bent down close to my ear, her voice low.

“Go ahead. Curse all you want.”

“After you give birth and your body is ruined, I’ll have plenty of ways to make you shut up.”

“Then the godfather’s wife will be Sophia.”

“As for you...”

She straightened up, smiling so brightly it made my skin crawl.

“I’ll leave you alive out of respect for my brother. You can spend the rest of your life serving people like a maid.”

Dr. Gray snapped.

“Lina! This is murder!”

“Murder?” Lina let out a laugh, her eyes cold. “Careful what you say, Doctor.”

“Women die in childbirth all the time.”

“And since when has anyone in a mafia family been afraid of the dead?”

Then she waved to the bodyguards outside.

“Take Dr. Gray away so he can calm down.”

“I’ll look after my sister-in-law myself.”

Two bodyguards stepped in immediately and dragged him away while he struggled.

Dr. Gray shouted as they pulled him back.

“Camilla! Press below the carotid artery. And the median nerve inside the wrist. Press again and again. It can stimulate contractions.”

“Don’t give up. Hold on!”

His voice faded farther and farther away.

Lina shut the nurse’s station door.

Then she pulled out her phone, started a video call, and said sweetly, “Brother, sister-in-law is about to give birth. She’s bleeding a lot. Do you want to look?”

Vincenzo’s face appeared on the screen.

He was standing outside the third-floor delivery suite, with a blur of busy staff behind him.

“Camilla, stop making a scene.” His voice was full of impatience.

“Sophia’s condition isn’t good. The fetal heart rate is dropping. I can’t leave.”

Lina turned the camera toward the blood between my legs and deliberately zoomed in.

“Do you think she’s going to die?”

Vincenzo glanced once, then looked away.

“Let her wait.”

“Once Sophia delivers, the doctors can go down.”

“Lina, just keep an eye on her. I really can’t leave right now.”

The call ended.

Lina shrugged and slid her phone away.

“You heard him.”

“In my brother’s heart, there’s only Sophia and the heir in her belly.”

“You’re just a breeding tool.”

“When a tool’s used up, you throw it away.”

I closed my eyes and stopped looking at her.

My hand moved quietly behind me until I felt a metal device no bigger than a button sewn into my dress lining.

My father had given it to me.

He’d said, “Camilla, the Rossi family runs deep and dark. If anything ever happens, press this.”

I had laughed at him back then and said he worried too much. I told him Vincenzo treated me well, and the Rossi family had always been kind to me.

Now I could only think how stupid I had been.

I dug my nail under the protective cover and pressed it.

No sound.

No light.

But I knew the distress signal had gone out.

My father had once told me that if I ever pressed it, someone would come within thirty minutes.

But thirty minutes...

Could my baby survive thirty more minutes?