The sterile peace of the VIP suite shattered like a fallen mirror. The heavy thud of the security guards' boots on the polished linoleum floor sounded like a death knell. Arthur Vance stood in the center of the room, his silhouette framed by the harsh fluorescent lights of the corridor, his hospital gown partially hidden by an expensive silk robe. He looked less like a recovering heart patient and more like an executioner.
"I warned you, girl," Arthur hissed, his voice a low, lethal vibration. "I told you that you were a distraction. Now, you've become a trespasser."
Lili didn't move. Despite the agonizing pull in her side and the way her fractured leg screamed under her weight, she kept her forehead pressed against Leo's. She could feel his erratic heartbeat, the way his skin was flushing with a feverish heat as he struggled to process the conflicting realities clashing in his mind.
"He's starting to remember, Arthur!" Lili cried out, her voice echoing off the glass walls. "You're scared because you know you can't control a man who knows the truth!"
"I am protecting my son from the person who put him in this bed!" Arthur roared. He snapped his fingers, and the two guards—men built like stone walls—stepped forward.
One of them grabbed Lili's arm, his grip bruising her skin. Lili let out a sharp cry of pain as he wrenched her away from Leo. Her IV pole toppled over with a metallic crash, the clear fluid spilling across the floor like tears.
"Stop it!" Leo shouted. He tried to stand, but the sudden movement sent a surge of vertigo through his brain. He slumped back into the chair, clutching his head, his face contorted in agony. "You're hurting her! Why are you hurting her if she's just a stranger?"
Arthur stepped toward his son, his hand resting on Leo's shoulder with a grip that was meant to be comforting but looked like a shackle.
"She's dangerous, Leo. She's unstable. Look at her—she's obsessed with the idea of being part of this family. She's the reason the car went over the embankment. She's the reason you can't remember your own life."
"He's lying, Leo!" Lili screamed as the guards began to drag her toward the door. Her feet skidded across the floor, her weak leg trailing behind her. "Ask Luca! Ask Maya! Look at the news from the gala! You chose me! You chose us!"
The guards didn't hesitate. They pulled her out into the hallway, past the startled nurses and the silent janitors. Lili fought with everything she had, her fingers clawing at the doorframe of Leo's room, leaving thin streaks of red where her nails caught the metal.
"Leo! Please!"
Through the closing door, she saw Leo looking at her. For a split second, the vacant, polite cloud in his eyes vanished. A raw, piercing spark of the old Leo—the man who would have burned the city down to keep her safe—flashed in his gaze. He reached out a hand toward her, his lips moving as if to say her name.
Then, the heavy soundproof door clicked shut.
Arthur didn't just have her removed from the room. He had her removed from the building.
Under the cover of darkness, while the city slept, Lili was loaded into a private ambulance. She wasn't being taken home; she was being moved to a low-tier state facility on the outskirts of the city—a place where the Vance influence couldn't be tracked, but where her medical care would be minimal and her access to a phone non-existent.
"You can't do this!" Lili sobbed as the paramedics strapped her into the gurney. "I have rights! I'm a patient!"
"You're a liability," one of the guards muttered, closing the ambulance doors.
As the vehicle pulled away from the glittering glass towers of St.
Jude's, Lili looked out the small back window. She watched the VIP wing recede into the distance, a glowing white beacon in the dark. She was alone, broken, and hidden away from the world.
Back in Room 701, the silence was suffocating. Arthur sat in the chair opposite Leo, his face composed and calm.
"She's gone, Leo. You don't have to worry about her anymore. We've moved her to a psychiatric facility where she can get the help she clearly needs."
Leo didn't respond. He sat perfectly still, staring at his hands. He looked at the wedding band he was supposedly meant to wear—the one Sienna had picked out—which sat on the bedside table. Then, he looked at his own bare ring finger.
There was a faint, pale line of skin there—a mark where a different ring, or perhaps just the memory of a different commitment, had once been.
"Father," Leo said, his voice strangely cold. "If she was the one who caused the accident... why was she crying? And why, when she touched my hand, did it feel like I was finally coming home?"
Arthur's eyes narrowed. "That's the trauma talking, Leo. Your brain is trying to make sense of the chaos. Tomorrow, Sienna will be here. She'll help you remember the truth."
Leo nodded slowly, but as his father left the room, Leo didn't close his eyes. He looked at the glass partition. There was a single, bloody fingerprint on the handle—the one Lili had left when they dragged her away.
He didn't know who she was. He didn't know why his heart felt like it had been ripped out of his chest. But for the first time since he woke up, Leo Vance didn't believe a word his father said.