He Let Our Daughter Die, I Became A Tycoon's Bride novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Keep the Ring, Keep Him

In front of the whole ER Penelope drops her ring into Kirsten's pocket and asks for a divorce, the surgeon says Hattie lives but must go to Leacrest, and Neil sends police after her on the helipad.

Neil didn't wait for an answer.

He looked at Cillian's suit, then at the Draper Holdings badge on the nearest specialist's coat, and his face changed.

"Draper," he said. "Cillian Draper of Leacrest?"

"Yes," Cillian said.

Neil let go of Kirsten and held out his hand.

"Neil Garner, Garner Group. My wife is upset, as you can see. She's been like this all day. I'm sorry she dragged you into a family matter."

Cillian looked at the hand and didn't take it.

"It isn't a family matter," I said. "Where were you?"

"With Kirsten, at the clinic. She had a dizzy spell."

"I called you thirty-one times."

"I saw them." Neil shrugged, and a nurse nearby went very still. "I thought it was another one of your scenes."

I felt the hallway go quiet around us.

Nurses had stopped at their desks.

A man in the waiting area had lifted his phone.

"Our daughter is on an operating table," I said. "She was bleeding out. You took every unit of her blood type in the city and had it sent to your secretary."

"Kirsten is anemic," Neil said.

"Kirsten is standing right there."

Everyone looked at Kirsten.

She touched her forehead and swayed.

"Neil," she said in her soft voice, "I'm sorry. I feel faint again. I think it's the stress."

Neil caught her elbow at once.

"You see what you've done?" he said to me. "You're making a sick woman stand in a hallway."

I reached into my pocket and took out my wedding ring.

I walked to Kirsten, opened her cardigan pocket, and dropped it in.

"Then you keep this," I said. "You wanted him that badly."

"Penelope."

"I want a divorce, Neil."

He laughed.

It was a short, ugly laugh, and he looked around for someone to share it with.

Nobody laughed with him.

"You're jealous," he said. "That's all this is. You've got a stranger carrying your bag to make me look bad, and you're using Hattie to do it."

"Hattie is in surgery because of you."

"Hattie is in surgery because you were driving her around in a car you insisted on."

"Our driver died in the front seat."

"Then hire a better driver."

I heard someone behind me draw a breath.

Cillian had not moved.

He stood with his hands at his sides and his eyes on Neil, and I realized I was afraid to look at his face.

"You have nothing without me," Neil said, lower. "The house is mine, the company is mine, the accounts are mine. Say what you want in front of these people. By Friday you'll be calling me to apologize."

"Garner Group started with my father's guarantee," I said. "Every loan you ever got was signed on his name."

"Your father is dead."

"And you're about to wish he wasn't."

Neil opened his mouth to answer.

The operating room doors opened.

The surgeon came out in a mask, with her gloves still on.

I forgot about Neil.

"Mrs. Garner?"

"Yes. Is she..."

"She's alive," the surgeon said. "The bleeding is stopped. The blood from Leacrest saved her."

My legs went.

Cillian's hand closed around my elbow, firm and brief, and then he let go.

I put my own hand over my mouth.

"She isn't out of danger," the surgeon went on. "She needs a pediatric intensive care unit tonight, and this hospital doesn't have one. I want her at Leacrest General within the hour."

"I'll move her," Cillian said.

"Nothing leaves this hospital without my signature," Neil said.

The surgeon looked at him for a long moment.

"You're the father?"

"I am."

"Then I want to ask you something, Mr. Garner. Do you want your daughter to live?"

Neil's jaw tightened.

"Of course I do."

"Then you'll step aside."

He didn't answer.

The surgeon turned to the nurses and said, "Prepare the transfer."

They wheeled my daughter out on a gurney, small and white under the blanket.

I walked beside her with Cillian a step behind.

Neil watched us go.

I heard him say to Kirsten, very quietly, "Stay here."

Two officers had come in earlier to take the crash report, and they were still at the nurses' station.

Neil walked straight up to them.

"Officers, I'm Neil Garner of Garner Group," he said. "My wife is taking my daughter out of this hospital without my consent."

I kept walking.

The stairs led up to the roof, and the rotor noise was already shaking the door.

I pushed it open and stepped out into the wind.

Footsteps pounded up the stairs behind me.

The officers came through the door with Neil right behind them, and one of them put a hand up.

"Ma'am, stop right there."

Neil pointed at me across the helipad.

"That's her," he said. "She's kidnapping my child."

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